Strange New Life
by Pegasus Sword Master
Summary: I watched, annoyed, as Clockwork regarding me with an amused smirk. (Jerk!) Here he was giving me this total bomb shell and he had the audacity to laugh! Well, it couldn't hurt to try this out. Who knows, maybe I'll actually enjoy it, even if it sounds completely insane and confusing.
1. Chapter 1

***Story edited as of 07-27-2015***

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Pokémon. Any Pokédex entries that come up are from Pokémon . com. I'm also using Bulbapedia to generally look things up as I have definitely not memorized everything in the Pokémon universe. I own nothing. This disclaimer is for the entire story.**

* * *

~Chapter One~

I watched, annoyed as Clockwork regarding me with an amused smirk. (Jerk!) Here he was giving me this total bomb shell and he had the audacity to laugh!

I'm sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start over.

Today had started out normally, or at least as normal as it could get for someone like me. Ghost powers are awesome like that.

I woke up. Nearly blew up my alarm clock because it was way too early for this and dragged myself out of bed. I heard a muffled explosion downstairs and decided that Mom probably tried cooking breakfast again and contemplated just flying out of my window now so I wouldn't have to deal with all the morning 'excitement' that usually accompanied my parents' shenanigans.

I looked at my slightly singed and suspiciously green looking alarm clock (whoops) with half-lidded eyes and decided that it probably would be best to get something to eat before some stupid ghost decided to annoy me again. Seriously, do they not have a life!?... death? …whatever.

Anyway, I pulled on a mostly clean shirt, struggled to put on my jeans, and then wandered downstairs to see what blew up this time.

As soon as I made it to the kitchen, I knew it would probably be best not to ask, though I did regard all the green goop, Jazz's furious expression, and Mom and Dad's sheepish looks with mild interest before I walked around this morning's carnage to get some plain cereal.

While I was feeding myself, my sister stomped out of the kitchen and joined me at the table, getting some cereal and chewing furiously at the poor flakes. I opened my mouth to say something, but instead of words, a familiar icy-blue mist escaped my mouth.

_Why!?_

My sister's face adopted a much gentler tone and she regarded me with sympathy. I huffed in annoyance, morphed into Phantom, gave my cereal one last mournful look, and flew through the wall.

* * *

I sighed in exasperation as I found myself floating above Fenton Works. Normally, I would enjoy the nice winter breeze flowing around me. Unlike most humans (not that I am completely human but whatever), I loved the cold, particularly after I got a handle on my ice powers. Ever since my cryokinesis manifested, I've always felt like the cold was a long lost friend.

Well, enough about my ice manipulation and more about the source of my frustration. I surveyed my surroundings with calculating eyes, senses on high alert, looking for anything abnormal or even slightly ghostly. Finding nothing, I lazily flew around the general area, hoping for some clue as to who was attacking this time.

I circled one last time, thinking that I would more than likely run into whoever the lunatic was later and deal with them then, and flew back towards my house with the full intention of finishing my hopefully not very soggy cereal. I may be half ghost, but I still needed to eat, just not as often as normal people. I wasn't really paying attention to my speed but realized too late that I shouldn't have been flying that fast.

Of course, a stupid portal appears out of nowhere right in front of my face.

Before I could even think about slowing down, I had already flown through it, shot straight past the glowing figure waiting just past the exit of the portal, and straight into the wall, face first.

Don't I have the best of luck?

* * *

The stupid jerk did that on purpose!

I sat there seething at the figure in front of me. Here was the Master of Time, overseer of just about everything, with the ability to rewind time with a click of a button, trying and utterly failing to hide his snickers. The image that this fearsome ghost usually painted with his almost constant indifferent attitude and obvious power was ruined even further by the fact that he was doing this in his toddler form.

He looked like some petulant child who just pulled a prank on his elders and succeeded in getting away with it. The description fit the current situation, especially since there wasn't really much of anything I could do about it. He was the Master of Time after all and besides the fact that I am most certainly not his elder, Clockwork could probably get away with just about anything short of ruining the time stream. I didn't even think that the Observants could do much, judging by the fact that whenever the one-eyed freaks decided to scold Clockwork, the Time Master just disregarded their concerns.

I continued to glare at him, though he seemed to not be in much of a hurry since he continued to chuckle at the fact that I had just face planted into a wall at over a hundred miles per hour.

I will admit that I seriously considered punching him in the face. I thought better of it though. He'd probably know I would do it before I could even begin to raise my clenched fist.

As I seethed, I heard a small scuffling noise and a very odd sounding giggle. I would have investigated what that was about but decided against it in favor of figuring out just what the hell Clockwork's problem was.

Couldn't this wait until after breakfast?! While the wall wasn't exactly the best wake up call, I still wasn't awake enough to take the ghost seriously.

"Really Clockwork?! What was that for?! And don't act all innocent. I know you did that on purpose you smug bastard!"

Clockwork regarded me with another amused look and apparently decided to ignore my previous comment/insult.

He waved his hand dismissively and proceeded to calmly float towards the ground, where I had oh so gracefully landed on after my meeting with the ectoplasm infused wall.

"Daniel, what would you say if I said that you would have an opportunity of sorts, to live the life of a normal child?"


	2. Chapter 2

***Story edited as of ****07-27-****2015***

**Thank you for your reviews, favorite, and follows.**

**This chapter is very heavy on explanations, but it needed to be done.**

* * *

~Chapter Two~

I stared blankly at Clockwork for what felt like an hour. Normal!? I don't even know what that means anymore?!

My life was never normal, even before the accident. There was always some new invention exploding or some new ghost theory that I had to sit through for hours. My parents don't even dress normally! The one time they did turned into a disaster.

I should probably not say anything about thinking like that to Sam. She would probably hit me if I said something negative about being unique or whatever she calls it. Her combat boots usually leave a mark.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

I got the impression that the Time Master was rolling his eyes at me. Though how I got that was beyond me. He has freaking red pupiless eyes… Is pupiless even a word?

Eh. I got a C- in English. Sue me.

Anyway, seeing as I was in no condition to figure out what this idiot was talking about (my face was still sore, even with my enhanced healing), the aforementioned idiot decided to finally elaborate.

"I am sure you are aware that there are multiple dimensions that exist, correct?"

I continued to stare at him. The twitch in his eye revealed to me that he was starting to get annoyed with me gaping like a fish. Well, excuse me. It wasn't my fault! I was well aware that there were different versions of my life that existed. There was my evil future self that still existed after all, just trapped in a thermos for the rest of eternity. And then there was the little fact that, if one knew how to use those pesky triangular-shaped portals (*cough* Infimap), traversing across time would become a walk in the park.

I had a feeling that Clockwork wasn't talking about any of that. Call it what you want but I learned a long time ago that I needed to put my utmost faith in my instincts. Bad things tended to happen when I did the opposite.

There was also the fact that the ghost mentioned different dimensions. Like, they had nothing to do with each other. Everything I knew about was still technically part of the one I was currently sitting in or part of the Human Realm, but those were connected to each other. I mean, if one was destroyed, then the other would fall with it.

That's kind of morbid. Back to the present conversation.

"What are you talking about?" was my intelligent response.

Clockwork raised a nonexistent eyebrow, his scar moving up slightly as he contemplated my confused expression. After a few moments of the two of us having a staring match, comprehension dawned on his face.

"Oh, my mistake, I was thinking of a different Daniel."

It's too early in the morning for this.

"What are you talking about!?" I once again demanded, completely baffled.

Oh wonderful, Clockwork has made a broken record of me. I think I just said the same thing like three times in a row… or was it four? Ugh. I need to sleep. I think I got like two hours of it last night. Stupid Box Ghost.

Clockwork gave an exasperated sigh and proceeded to finally explain himself.

"There are multiple dimensions that exist, besides the two you already know of. You do not need to know of any of the others except one, the Pokémon World."

"Bless you."

"If you agree, I will transport you to this world," the ghost continued, ignoring my previous blessing. "There are certain conditions that you must agree on for me to do so and I will get to those in a moment."

I frowned, still confused. What did being transported to a different dimension have to do with living like a normal kid? The entire thing sounded pretty abnormal to me.

Oh wait, he's still talking.

"The Pokémon World is nothing like the Ghost Zone and different from the Human Realm that you live in, albeit it is similar. Humans exist in this world, but what makes it different are the creatures that live alongside them. The creatures are called Pokémon. These Pokémon look a bit like the average animals that populate the Human Realm, but the similarities stop after that."

I watched as Clockwork briefly glanced behind him and then went on with his explanation. This Pokémon World sounded a bit interesting, but I will reserve judgment until I learned more about why these Pokémon were so different. It must have been a big deal if Clockwork decided that it was important enough to tell me.

"What truly sets the Pokémon apart from animals are the abilities that they possess. Some can manipulate the elements, such as electricity, water, fire, and so forth. Others possess abilities similar to both your abilities and the many ghosts you have encountered. These Pokémon are categorized into types depending on their strengths, weaknesses, and the energies they are able to manipulate with ease."

Okay, all this talk about Pokémon having abilities like that definitely peaked my interest. I couldn't even imagine a world like that. Animals with the ability to breathe fire or electrocute someone seemed a little farfetched.

"Now, the humans have long ago learned to exploit the abilities of the creatures that live amongst them. In the beginning, many humans regarded the Pokémon with fear and used them as tools. The Pokémon were many times treated wrongly or seen as below the human race. Some of this still occurs in the present, mostly by the wicked of the human race. Nowadays, the Pokémon are seen as friends and partners by the majority of humans. Many Pokémon are caught and trained by humans, who are their Trainers. The Pokémon that are caught work alongside the humans according to whatever profession said human decides to pursue. I know it sounds a little odd that the Pokémon work with the humans that caught them, but, if you agree to go, you will see and understand how that works eventually.

The most important concept that involves the Pokémon is the battling. All Pokémon love to battle, it is in their blood. These creatures are intelligent beings, just as much and sometimes more so than humans. They want to improve their abilities, and to do so, they train with the humans. Yes, the Pokémon could theoretically learn and improve in the wild but… well, I will let you figure out how that works.

Now, humans learned about this love for battle early on and coordinated competitions to bring the best out of the friends that they made."

My head was reeling form information overload. This talk about Pokémon battling was crazy, though I could understand where they were coming from. Sure, it got annoying when I was interrupted every five seconds by a ghost, but I loved getting a good fight out of them. I've spent hours on end trying to improve the abilities I know about and getting a handle on the ones I discovered. No matter how banged up I got, I knew I would never give up my life for anything. The feel of the power running in my veins and that satisfaction I got when I pulled something new off was amazing. Being able to save others with my abilities felt even more amazing though. It didn't matter if not everyone thought I was good news. The grateful smiles I got from those who I helped will always keep me going.

"Alright, I have given you an extremely brief explanation of the Pokémon World, though nothing I will say will give this dimension justice. It is something that you must experience for yourself. The opportunity I mentioned earlier involves you being transported to this dimension to experience its wonders for yourself, as a normal human child of this world."

My mind hit a mental brick wall when I heard that.

"What!? Are you being serious?! Sure this place sounds cool but how do you expect me to just up and leave?! What about Amity? They need me! The ghosts will go crazy once they find out I'm nowhere to be found. The humans won't know what to do. They have no idea how often the ghosts actually run amuck in the city and will be overwhelmed. You know full well that the ghost hunters, including my parents, won't be able to handle it!"

I continued to vent out my frustration to the ghost. Why would he suggest something like this? I mean, I do actually want to see what this place was like, but I can't, in good conscience, go there.

I can't abandon Amity Park.

Clockwork raised his hand in a 'stop talking' gesture and I immediately shut up. He was already annoyed and I didn't think it would be a good idea to raise his ire even further. Memories briefly flashed in front of my eyes, all about repeatedly smashing into a bell.

It would probably be best to not have a repeat of that. My face could not handle that kind of abuse again.

I thought I saw a brief smirk cross the now adult-looking ghost's face. Damn. He probably knew exactly what I was thinking.

"You will not be gone for months on end. It works much more differently, but before that, I need to explain why I am giving you this opportunity."

The first thing that came to my mind was that there was some evil plot going on and the inhabitants of this world needed help with dealing with it, but that didn't make any sense. I would supposedly be living the life of a normal child of this world, so I wouldn't be fighting off some bad dude, unless kids are normally dealing with villains in this world.

"There are many ghosts, as I am sure you have noticed, that did not live a full life. They met their demise at very young ages. You, Danny Phantom, will not be the first ghost, nor the last, to be given this opportunity. The point of this… program I suppose we could call it, is to allow those who died young and became ghosts to have an opportunity to live again in a completely different world.

You are not necessarily dead, but you are not exactly living like a normal sixteen-year-old either, with your ghost abilities and all. You are being given this opportunity so that you have the chance to know what it is like to live like a normal child, and maybe make a few more life-long friends along the way. The lives of the children of the Pokémon World are much more different than the lives of those in the Human Realm, but that is beside the point."

"Wait, hold up." I made the 'time out' symbol with my glove-covered hands. "So there's a chance I might run into another ghost there? If I'm not the first, that means that there are others living there right?"

"At the moment, no, there is no other ghost living in the Pokémon World." Clockwork seemed to give a ghost of a secretive smile before continuing on. I eyed him suspiciously before deciding not to comment. "Whether that changes later depends on many things that you are not allowed to know about. Though part of it does involve making sure that said ghost does not attempt world domination of the Pokémon World like they seem to enjoy trying to do in the Human Realm."

I snorted at that. Well no wonder why there wasn't another ghost there right now.

"Based on what I have told you so far, do you think you would like to give this opportunity a chance?"

I eyed him skeptically. "Well it seems pretty cool and I guess I could give it a shot. But how would I not be gone for long periods of time? I'm guessing I'll be going back and forth somehow if I'm not going to be gone that long? Wouldn't my disappearances in both dimensions raise a few eyebrows?"

"Of course not." Clockwork waved his free hand dismissively. "You will be going back and forth, but no time will pass in the world that you are not in. It involves quite a bit of tampering with time on my part but, as I said, you will not be the first. The amount of manipulation I have to do is not difficult, especially since I have done it many times in the past."

I frowned once again. "So when would I go back and forth? Is there a set time that it happens? Do I have to be in a certain place for it?"

"No," Clockwork replied bluntly. "Your movement from one dimension to the other is completely random. A portal will not open and bring you from one place to the other. Nothing along that line will occur. It will be a bit like your duplication I suppose. You have one version of yourself here, and the other in the Pokémon World. However, you will only be in control and aware of one body.

Now, say you are in the Human Realm, sitting at your desk doing homework. Your vision will go white for about a second, and you will find yourself wherever you were the last time you were in the Pokémon World. When you are transported back to the Human Realm, you will find yourself, once again, sitting at your desk doing homework. Understand?"

I nodded slowly to that, my mind already coming up with ways that that could go wrong. I mean, what if I'm in the middle of a conversation in the Pokémon World and then I get transported back home. Then I get involved in a ghost fight and get transported back to the Pokémon World in the middle of punching whoever was attacking Amity, and _finished_ the punch in the Pokémon World.

I winced. That would really suck.

Judging by the look of amusement on the Time Master's face, I guessed that something along my line of thinking had probably happened plenty of times in the past. Clockwork was probably looking forward to how badly I would mess that up.

With my kind of luck, it was practically guaranteed.

"One last thing, you will not have any access to your ghost powers whenever you are in the Pokémon World but will have the same features that your ghost form has."

Well, it seems we have gone back to me making a fool of myself by gaping like a fish.

"What!?"

"The main reason we do this is to allow for the ghost in question to experience the life of a human, complete with breathing, eating, and everything else that ghosts no longer require. You will essentially be a human version of Phantom. Your appearance will include white hair and green eyes, just without the glowing. You also will not have your jumpsuit, but will be outfitted in something that looks a bit similar. The reason you will be Phantom and not Fenton when it comes to your appearance has to do with the fact that when this is done with a full-ghost, they look like a human version of the ghost they are. This is done to ensure that a full-ghost does not become too attached to being human. Many ghosts envy the living, so keeping a ghost as close as possible to what they were when it comes to their appearance will remind the ghost in question of what they are and that the current situation is temporary. Well, mostly.

I do not believe you need the same reminder that full-ghosts need, but this is how it has been done for centuries and, since it has been a success, it will be continued the same way."

"Hang on a sec. Wouldn't my white hair be, I don't know, kind of suspicious?"

Clockwork smirked and just replied with a, "No, and you will see why if you agree."

I just decided to stay quiet now. This was way too confusing. Couldn't he have waited until I was in a better state of mind to say all this to me?

"So… do you accept?"

I thought about it for a bit. The only reason I wouldn't agree would be because of the potentially embarrassing moments randomly switching between worlds could cause. There's also the fact that my attention wouldn't be as focused−

Oh what the hell.

"Yes."

"Excellent." Clockwork had a full out feral grin now.

What did I get myself into?


	3. Chapter 3

***Story edited as of 12-30-2015***

**You people are awesome! I got over a hundred visitors and around twice as many views within three days of posting the first chapter. Thank you!**

**Thanks once again to those who reviewed, followed, and favorited. They made my day!**

**If any of you see any holes in my explanations or something, please let me know so I can fix it as soon as possible. I don't want to be on chapter like 20 and find out I have a huge hole in my plot. And if there are any typos, punctuation problems, etc., go ahead and tell me in a review. If you want to list out all the problems, by all means, go ahead. I want to learn from my mistakes so I can make sure they don't happen again.**

* * *

~Chapter Three~

Where the hell was Clockwork?

I'm pretty sure that I've been standing here for half an hour and he still hasn't returned. I thought he said that he was just going to grab my starter.

That's right people. I am officially in the Pokémon World.

Of course, that didn't consist of Clockwork waving his staff like a magic wand and poofing me here right after I agreed to this whole mess. No, of course not. That conversation had happened over three months ago. Three. Months. Ago.

In actuality, Clockwork launched into another monotonous explanation about the absolutely wonderful things I had to do to prepare for this thing. Note the sarcasm.

I had to read.

Of all things, I had to read. And on top of the ghost fighting and the stupid homework I already had to do! I was not a happy camper.

The good thing was that most if it was pretty cool and I was actually interested in it. I got to peruse through the different moves that Pokémon could learn, memorize the different types that existed (I still find the fact that Ghost Pokémon exist laughable), and learn about all the little intricate details of what it means to be a kid living in this world. What sucked was that I had absolutely_ no time_ whatsoever. I barely had time to sleep!

A lot of that was during the earlier two months and it was mostly to make sure I didn't look like a dunderhead while I was here. For instance, if someone started talking about Razor Leaf to me, I'm pretty sure that before all this, I would have thought about some type of tree with leaves that have sharp edges or something, not about the move that a Grass type could learn. I could figure out what a Tackle was, but things like Double Team or Agility? Pffft.

I didn't know all of them, just the basics mostly. Enough so that my lack of knowledge doesn't raise any unwanted suspicion.

The last month, in my opinion, was the best, but also the worst. The best being that some of the stuff was pretty damn amazing. The worst being that it was the most important and Clockwork would kill me all the way if I didn't pay attention. Apparently, it would make him look bad to his 'colleagues' or something.

Confused? I'm sure you are. Don't worry, I'll get to that.

See, people can't exactly pop out of nowhere nowadays. These guys are pretty advanced when it comes to technology and are very good at keeping track of things. Oh sure, in the past, like forever ago, it didn't matter where people came from since nobody really kept track of that stuff, except for maybe within their families, or tribes, or whatever other thing people had that long ago. If a ghost-turned-human travelled around during that time period, it was pretty easy to just make things up.

That was no longer the case.

Clockwork released this not long after he made the pact with the guardians of the Pokémon World (I know, I know, you don't know what I'm talking about, just hang on a sec). Instead of making up some fib about where each ghost came from every time one was chosen, Clockwork took the easy route and decided to just have them come from the same place.

Genius right?

So my backstory, if anyone in this world happens to ask, is that I am of the Clockwork Clan that lives on a self-sustaining and isolated island dubbed Evolution Island in the middle of the ocean.

Clockwork is so full of himself. That sounds like something out of a stupid princess fairy tale.

But whatever, it has worked so far. Why change it?

Anyway, I had to spend the last month making sure that I knew all about the research that the Clockwork Clan specialized in, specifically, the legends surrounding the Legendary Pokémon and the many ancient societies that existed once upon a time.

Awesome right? I got to spend a whole month just reading about a bunch of legends which were, admittedly, pretty cool.

Also, the many Leagues recognized that we wanted no part in their societies and that we liked our nice, cozy island in the middle of nowhere, so they mostly left us alone. To make sure that we weren't doing anything wrong, especially since the native Pokémon was quite rare and we were researching Legendaries, they asked if they could send a representative every once in a while to check up on us.

Clockwork wholeheartedly agreed and even told them that they didn't need to warn us. They could just come whenever they wanted, which won their collective trust that we weren't hiding anything.

If only they knew.

All Clockwork did was look a couple of hours into the future, notice that someone was on their way, and then ask a bunch of the ghosts who had come to this world in the past to mill around the place, acting like they had been living on Evolution Island the entire time.

The fact that many of them had obsessions that involved the things that any self-sustaining, research-involved island needed was a plus. You know, farmers, construction workers, scientists. All that good stuff.

Unfortunately, like any flawless plan, it backfired.

It wasn't that big of a deal, but I knew I was going to get annoyed at some point becau−

_**CRASH!**_

What the hell was Clockwork doing?

I looked towards the door that he had disappeared behind an hour ago. I seriously had no idea what was going on. We were in a research facility built on Evolution Island. The rooms in here were super clean, like a hospital, all nice and sterilized with a faint stench of cleaning chemicals still hanging in the air. I was getting a little anxious. Was someone attacking? We were both pretty useless right now, considering the fact that we didn't have access to either of our ghost powers.

I was contemplating breaking off one of the legs of the many tables dotting the area and barging in the room with a battle cry when Clockwork finally came back, looking a little worse for wear.

* * *

Hahaha!

I know. It's rude to laugh at someone, but I didn't care. This was too hilarious. Clockwork looked like he got into a fight with an angry cat, and lost!

Scratches littered his human clothes. The lower hems of his pants looked torn up, like a small creature tried to rip part of it off with their teeth. The look on Clockwork's face was absolutely priceless. I wish I had a camera. (No! Bad thought. No wishing.) The ghost-turned-human had an epically furious look on his face. Ha! Serves him right!

It took me another ten minutes to calm down from my laughing fit. It was still a huge effort to suppress my giggles since Clockwork's expression had not changed.

"If you are done," Clockwork intoned with barely concealed rage, "here is your starter. As I am sure it is obvious, she is quite the prankster." I brightened at that. The Time Master rolled his eyes and continued. "You two will probably have the time of your lives making trouble and annoying everyone around you."

He then proceeded to hold up an unimpressive white, red, and black-colored ball that I had overlooked earlier in my mirth.

I snatched it out of his hand like a kid in a candy store and looked at the Pokéball with barely concealed reverence. I couldn't help it. The creature that was concealed in the ball was supposedly going to become one of my best friends.

I snapped out of my reverie, tossed the Pokéball to the floor and waited with bated breath for my first Pokémon friend to form out of the pure white energy. Sure, I knew what she was going to be, every ghost got the same starter. But, like Sam would say, every creature was unique in their own way.

The white energy coalesced into the shape of a quadruped Pokémon with long, fox-like ears and a fluffy tail. She had a lighter-colored collar of fur around her neck and bright brown, mischievous eyes.

The little Eevee looked at me with a happy smile and glanced back towards the Time Master. Clockwork glared at her in contempt, a look that the Eevee returned with a smirk.

I believe that this was the start of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Ugh. That took forever.

I was walking towards the dock not too far away with my new little Eevee. The Pokémon was happy to walk alongside me instead of in her Pokéball. I was totally okay with that. I have more time to get to know her that way.

My surroundings consisted of a few houses that were supposed to be the home of the Clockwork Clan (that is, when a League representative was around). It was basically a ghost town and that pun was totally intended.

The only Pokémon that were around were a few of the Eevee and their evolutionary line, hence the name Evolution Island. Yes, the Pokémon that was native to the island was the very same Pokémon that every lucky ghost got as their starter.

There were quite a few Umbreon and Espeon. Those two evolutions were the most abundant of all the evolutions that Eevee had since they didn't have to rely on a stone in order to evolve.

Many of the Eevee family regarded the two of us with interest as we made our way to the boat that would bring us to Hoenn. Some even came to get scratched behind their ears or for a belly rub. These guys knew full well about the occasional inhabitants of their home and were completely okay with it.

I even felt like I could relate with them a little. I mean, I have two forms, each embodying something the complete opposite of the other. One dead, the other alive. The Eevee can evolve into a bunch of different forms, some being complete opposites of each other. There's Vaporeon, who can breathe underwater, and then there's Flareon, who can breathe fire. Total opposites! It's like how I don't need to breathe in my ghost form, but need to breathe in my human form.

I know, that was a huge stretch, but I don't care.

* * *

"So, do you want a name or something? I don't really want to call you Eevee all the time. That's kind of lame."

The little Pokémon looked back at me from where she was perched. She had been standing at the front of the small but technologically advanced boat (all I had to do was type the name of the region and city we needed to go to, which was decided by drawing straws with names on them, and we were off). The little brown puffball had had her tongue comically hanging out of her mouth as she enjoyed the nice ocean breeze, gleefully searching the water with barely contained excitement. Maybe she was trying to catch sight of a Water type?

Or maybe she wanted to evolve into Vaporeon? I hadn't known about the type of forms an Eevee could take on for very long, so I didn't have any preferences for one… yet. But if there was one she wanted to be, I would go out of my way to make sure she evolved into what she wanted. It's her body, so it's her choice. I didn't want her to be miserable because she ended up evolving into something she didn't want to be.

The only Pokémon I knew about explicitly were the Legendaries and the Eevee evolutionary line. Apparently Clockwork use to give a ghost the Pokédex right when they agreed, but that just led to them getting super obsessed with the team they wanted and not paying any attention to how things worked in the Pokémon World.

I wonder why?

That usually just led them to spending the entire time in the Pokémon World hunting down their perfect team, which defeated the purpose of coming here in the first place. Giving the ghost a Pokédex after they got their starter kind of diverted the ghost's attention from doing something like that because they weren't coming to the Pokémon World with their entire team figured out already. They'd have to go through the entire Pokédex in order to do something like that, and by the time they get through it, they have usually caught a Pokémon or two.

So, I was completely in the dark when it came to all the other Pokémon. But that's okay. As far as anyone knew, I had been living on an isolated island with little to no contact with the outside world, so my lack in knowledge was easily explained away.

Anyway, I watched as the Eevee shook her head and returned to gawking at the ocean. I looked at her incredulously.

"Wait, you want me to call you Eevee?" I sputtered.

She looked back at me once again, this time with amusement, and shook her head.

Okay, now I'm confused. The Eevee apparently decided that my flabbergasted expression was hilarious and burst into a fit of giggles that sounded… familiar. I put on my thinking face for a moment, complete with my hand supporting my chin and everything. Where had I heard that befo−

"Crap! You were there when I flew into the wall!" I pointed accusingly towards the giggling mass of fur.

I guess she couldn't suppress her laughter after that because she proceeded to roll on the floor of the boat, roaring with laughter. Well, that was a wonderful first impression. I didn't even know the Pokémon World existed yet and my first Pokémon friend had already had a first impression of me! What the hell!

* * *

After that fantastic revelation, we both just sat on the boat and relaxed, enjoying each other's company. The breeze was very refreshing and I even got a few glimpses of some Water Pokémon! The water surrounding us was a very deep blue, with occasional darker areas where the underwater Pokémon darted around. I caught a few Pokémon popping their heads out of the water, curiously looking at me, but would hastily duck back under when I looked back at them.

I glanced at the little fur ball lounging on my lap when I remembered about what I had asked earlier.

"You know, you didn't explain whether you wanted a name or not."

She glanced up at me and opened her mouth, as if she was about to say something, then thought better of it. Instead she adopted a thoughtful expression and frowned, which was very weird to see on her adorable furry face. Her expression lit up and she searched around the boat, her eyes eventually finding the blue backpack that Clockwork had given me. She walked over to it and poked her head in. With a cry of triumph, she pulled out the neon green Pokédex and loped back towards me.

I hadn't really looked at the thing in detail yet. I knew it had my general fake information, since it doubled as my ID, and its general uses. It was amusing to see my Pokémon trying to figure out how to work it. Her look of utter frustration showed me that she didn't even know how to turn it on.

Deciding that I should probably help her out, I grabbed the mini computer and turned it on. I looked back at the Eevee, wondering what she wanted me to do with it. She proceeded to puff out her chest and stand proudly before me, apparently waiting for me to do… something.

Oh. Duh.

I held my Pokédex in front of her to scan her and the machine gave me some general information in a computerized voice.

"Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Eevee has an unstable genetic makeup that suddenly mutates due to the environment in which it lives. Radiation from various stones causes this Pokémon to evolve."

Radiation? That sounded painful. Is evolution painful to the Pokémon? I hope not.

Too wrapped up in my musings, I didn't notice the Eevee jumping back onto my lap and pushing the arrow buttons. Apparently she knew what the arrows meant somehow.

"Vaporeon, the Bubble Jet Pokémon. Vaporeon underwent a spontaneous mutation and grew fins and gills that allow it to live underwater. This Pokémon has the ability to freely control water."

Why do these descriptions make evolution sound so painful?

"Jolteon, the Lightning Pokémon. Jolteon's cells generate a low level of electricity. This power is amplified by the static electricity of its fur, enabling the Pokémon to drop thunderbolts. The bristling fur is made of electrically charged needles."

Electrically charged needles? Shit! I could definitely get behind that kind of power. I can just imagine Skulker flying away with a bunch of those needles all over him, short-circuiting that stupid armor of his. Hah!

Oh wait, why is she showing me this?

I glanced down at the Pokémon in my lap, who looked at me expectantly as the entry for Flareon sounded in the background. What does evolving have to do with a name? After a moment, realization dawned on my face.

"You want to be given a name after you evolve?" I asked the little Pokémon, hoping I guessed right.

She grinned at me and nodded. Okay, that made sense. I could probably think of a better name once she evolved anyway. I'd also know her better, so I could probably think of a name that better suited her.

"Alright." I nodded to myself. "So I'll just call you Eevee until you evolve. Is there one you want to be?"

She just shrugged and went back to using my lap as a pillow.

I guess she didn't know yet. Oh well, we had plenty of time.


	4. Chapter 4

*******Story e****dited as of ****07-27-****2015***

* * *

~Chapter Four~

Finally.

You would think that finding a Pokémon Center wouldn't be so hard but noooo. I got lost three times. I sucked at reading maps.

My feet hurt, I was tired, and my butt was still asleep from that four hour boat ride.

I knew I was going to be walking everywhere while I was here, but I already hated it. I missed flying. I guess I got too used to flying all the time back home. Oh well, better late than never right?

Eevee didn't seem to care though. She was bounding around all over the place, standing proudly before anyone who paused to fawn over how cute she was. The little bundle of energy seemed to love the attention.

Eh. She can do what she wanted. I just wanted to find a bed to pass out on.

I walked up to the nurse with… pink hair? I shook my head. Great. I'm delusional now. Maybe I have jetlag? Is there a boat ride version of that?

I shook my head again and plastered on a fake smile.

"Hello." The cheery nurse seemed just as energized as Eevee. "How may we help you today?"

"Can I just have a room?"

"Of course. I need to see some identification please."

I dug through my bag for the pesky Pokédex. Not in the main compartment. Not in the little zipper pouch on the side. Where the hell was it?

Oh wait. It's in my pocket.

I gave it to the happy nurse, trying to hide my embarrassed blush. Hopefully she hadn't noticed that.

"Here you are sir. Enjoy your stay."

She gave a little wave that I halfheartedly returned and went to find my room. She called me, a ten-year-old, sir? Weird.

Yup, I'm now ten. I have to go through puberty a second time. Joy.

* * *

The room was certainly nice. And it was free!

There was a nice-sized bed, a small dresser, and a nightstand on one side of the room. The other side had a small desk with a computer and a notepad. There was a door in the corner, probably leading to a bathroom. There was also a window that showed a pretty view of the port and some ships nearby.

As soon as I was done looking over the room, I threw off my shoes, pulled off my backpack, and collapsed on the bed, not even bothering to change. I smiled when I felt Eevee jump on the bed and snuggle to my side before I drifted to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

_**BEEEEEEP!**_

I found myself sprawled all over the floor. Eevee was on my stomach, tangled in the blankets, fruitlessly trying to free herself.

"Why was the alarm set?" I whined.

Eevee seemed just as annoyed. She glared at the offending object and seemed to be contemplating whether to throw a Shadow Ball at it. I would have let her but I didn't think Nurse Joy would have been too happy about that.

I wanted to sleep in! Was that too much to ask?

I groaned and rolled into a sitting position. Eevee jumped off of me as I got up. The damn alarm was still going off, the red numbers of 8:30 shining brightly. I pushed the snooze button and went to take a shower. Hopefully I'd be awake enough to not fall asleep during breakfast.

* * *

This place had everything! There was even a battle field in the back!

I watched, entranced, as a girl's Wigglytuff punched the daylights out of her opponent's Zigzagoon. I winced. Poor little raccoon thingy. That looked painful.

Eevee was sitting in my lap, just as entranced as I was about the battle. This was so cool!

"Hey brat!"

I wonder how well Eevee would do here. I know she knows Shadow Ball, Synchronize, Growl, Helping Hand, Tail Whip, Sand Attack, and Tackle. Hopefully no one would know that I didn't know much of anything about battling.

Unfortunately, I think the enthralled look on my gawking face gave away the fact I had never seen a battle before.

"I am talking to you brat!"

Maybe I should go see how Eevee's moves worked before I try a ba−

"Ow!" I rubbed the stinging feeling away and glared at the offending teen who just flicked my head. What was his problem?

"I challenge you to a battle!" the guy screamed into my ear. Hello. I am right in front of you. Why the hell are you yelling?

The idiot had a triumphant smirk upon his face and looked at me smugly. He was throwing a minimized Pokéball up and down, his stance just oozing complete confidence.

"Umm…" Crap. This wasn't good. Did I have to except this challenge? Was it illegal to decline? I racked my brain for anything that involved challenges. I didn't remember anything about it being illegal. I didn't want to battle yet! There was no way I could pull off a win. I barely knew the basics about Eevee's moves! What if she gets hurt because I was a total idiot?

Eevee decided to make her presence known and jumped off my lap. She glared as best she could at the guy, even though it was not intimidating in the least. I'll give her props for trying though.

The teen took one look at the little puffball in front of him and promptly burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, pointing at my Eevee like she was the funniest thing in the world.

Okay, this just got personal. I stood up and glared at the teen with contempt.

"I accept. I suggest you get off the ground before Eevee attacks you. We'll show you looks aren't everything!" I practically spat in his face.

"Hahah! Yeah right. That little pipsqueak won't be able to touch my ace. He's going to pummel that stupid thing to the ground." The teen cackled and turned around, sauntering towards the now-empty battlefield.

I practically seethed with hate. Great. I've already met another Dash. I've only been here for a day!

I walked onto my side of the field, starting to feel a bit nervous. Me and my big mouth. Eevee ran up in front of me, ready and waiting for my orders.

The teen, now on the farther side of the field, regarded the both of us with dark eyes and threw the Pokéball he had been tossing earlier. I watched with bated breath as the white energy formed into a familiar purple, glowing bipedal Pokémon.

A Gengar.

My eyes practically flew out of their sockets at how astonished I was. I honestly didn't think that the first Pokémon I would battle would be one I actually knew.

We occasionally got a few researchers and such who would come by the island wanting to ask our opinion about certain events whenever something strange happened. Recently, there had been an increase in those visits for some reason.

I remembered reading about one of the recent reports. It involved the ancient civilization known as Pokémopolis, where a strange Gengar and Alakazam had duked it out and nearly destroyed a small town nearby. The good thing was that the Gengar before me right now wasn't as tall as a skyscraper with weird symbols sketched all over its form.

Maybe I wasn't as completely in the dark as I thought I was when it came to the different species of Pokémon.

The ghost snarled at Eevee, red eyes glowing maliciously as it floated in the air, watching with a devious smirk.

I decided to not wait around. Maybe I can take that thing by surprise.

"Shadow Ball," I yelled, hoping the thing was slow to dodge it. Eevee focused on the point in front of her mouth, forming a pulsing black ball of ghost energy with a purple hue to it. Both the Gengar and its Trainer looked surprised at the move, allowing for Eevee to land a hit. The Gengar was pushed back, pain in its eyes from the super effective move.

"Wha−" The teen gaped openly at what had just happened and promptly turned the same shade of red as a tomato. I didn't know a human's face could turn into that shade of red. You learn something new every day. "Gengar, get up you idiot! You should've seen that coming you moron!" he shrieked, fuming at the fact he had been taken by surprise. I smiled smugly at him, causing him to redden even more.

"Eevee, use Shadow Ball again. Hurry!" I urged her. The little Pokémon understood and launched another ball at the ghost that was just getting back up. It had no time to dodge and was smacked away again.

"Yes!" I cheered, punching a fist into the air. "Keep using Shadow Ball. It's the only thing you got that affects that thing."

Eevee wasted no time in running forward, launching Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball at the ghost. The Gengar had no time to do anything, it couldn't phase through the floor or disappear. All it could do was hope to endure the Shadow Balls Eevee launched at it like bullets out of a machine gun. It was a pitiful sight.

The other Trainer did nothing productive but holler insults and screech at his Gengar to do something. Honestly, what in the world was that going to do? The Gengar seemed to be in way too much pain to do anything but take the barrage of the super effective attack.

Eventually the poor thing slumped to the floor, too tired to endure anything else. Eevee noticed quickly and stopped attacking, panting but pleased that she had won.

"You did it!" I scooped the little Pokémon up and practically hugged her to death. She seemed to want to protest about being crushed but was too tired to do anything. While I was focused on my victory dance, I didn't notice my opponent return his Pokémon and stomp over to where I was twirling Eevee around, laughing in pure joy. I probably looked like a moron but was too happy to care.

"You cheated," he sneered in my face. "There is no way that weakling could've beaten my Gengar!"

I gave him a smug smile. "Well this little weakling just kicked your ass. If a 'weakling' beat you, without so much as a scratch might I add, what does that make you?" I asked him innocently.

The guy tried to speak but was too angry to do anything except repeatedly open and close his mouth. He then decided to just scream in my face and walk away. Ha!

I had to wipe the spittle out of my face though. Ew.

Eevee let loose a tired whine which brought me back to reality. I bolted back inside so Nurse Joy could check on her. She might not be as young as most starters were, but she wasn't exactly an experienced battler. Hopefully she hadn't overextended herself or something.

On the other hand, even though that hadn't been much of a battle, I was immensely proud of her.

* * *

"Your Eevee is just fine. She was just tired." The nice nurse handed me Eevee's Pokéball. "Just make sure she takes it easy for a few hours."

"Will do." I smiled at her and left the Center, wanting to get started on my journey. As soon as I was outside I released my first Pokémon. She sent me a happy smile.

I grinned down at her and said, "Time to get this journey going. Clockwork wants us to go to Littleroot Town. Dunno why but whatever. It's not like he's going to tell us." I started walking towards the path leading out of the city and into Petalburg Woods with Eevee trailing after me. "Hopefully we can get a bit more experience with battles on the way. I think it would be a good idea to wait on Gym battles until we train more and maybe find another buddy or two. I doubt the Gym Leaders will be as stupid as that guy was."

I looked back questionably at Eevee. She nodded sagely at me which made me laugh.

* * *

I gazed around me warily, keeping my senses alert as we walked through Petalburg Woods. The trees surrounding us stretched high into the sky, blotting out most of the sun and casting shadows everywhere. I was pretty apprehensive about being in here. I had pretty bad experiences whenever I ended up in the wildlife so I wanted to avoid it whenever I could. Plus, there would be wild Pokémon around. I knew not all Pokémon were prone to attack humans randomly, but I just didn't want to deal with that yet.

Eevee seemed to be just as wary. She hung close to me like a guardian, glaring defiantly everywhere she looked, as if she was trying to scare away something I couldn't see.

Not that I blamed her. I've had the feeling that something was stalking us since a little after we first entered the tree line. I really had no idea what it could be but it was really getting on my nerves. If I had access to my ghost powers, I wouldn't be so on edge, but alas, I couldn't use them.

We continued to walk on, making sure to keep to the dirt path. I didn't want to get lost in this place. There were a few places of interests on the route between Rustboro and Petalburg, but they weren't directly on the main path and I'd rather not take any chances right now. Maybe another time.

It was really quiet. We hadn't run into anyone else in the three hours we had been walking. No humans and no Pokémon. It was like the place was completely void of life, which just made the entire situation more terrifying.

I'm so pathetic. I've taken down dozens of blood thirsty ghosts and a bunch of trees give me the creeps. What was wrong with me? I stepped over a log in the middle of the path, Eevee jumped over, and continued. Then, I promptly tripped over nothing and fell on my face.

"!"

"Ugh. What in the world?" I turned onto my back and looked at my feet, ignoring Eevee's giggle fit. I knew I felt something when I tripped, but I didn't see anything. I looked closely not really expecting to find anything…

…and found myself in front of luminous malicious eyes staring right back at me.

I yelped and fumbled away, trying to get away from whatever it was. Eevee decided that the situation wasn't funny anymore and launched a Shadow Ball at where the eyes had been. The ball continued on and smashed into a tree a few yards away, jostling the branches. Okay, so something was following us. I glanced around me warily, searching for anything out of the ordinary. That might have been a Ghost Pokémon, but I honestly had no way of knowing. Who knows, maybe it was some kind of Psychic Pokémon that could cause illusions.

After staring at nothing for a few minutes, thinking the whatever it was would pop out of nowhere, I sighed and stood up, brushing off the dirt from my outfit. Eevee looked at me worriedly. "Let's go," I said tiredly. "Hopefully that thing will get bored and go away eventually. We can't exactly fight it and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to hunt it down." Eevee let loose a guttural growl but agreed.

* * *

The rest of the day was pretty good actually. The thing we had run into earlier seemed to have lost interest in us since I didn't feel like I was being watched anymore. Eevee wasn't as cautious either so I assumed that everything was okay now.

We had found a nice clearing a few minutes ago. There was a small scattering of bushes with what I'm pretty sure were Oran Berries and a small pond in the center. I'd say this was a nice place to stay the night. I guess I should learn how to set up camp.

I will withhold the details of the disaster of setting up camp. I got the tent up, so there. That's all you need to know.

Eevee stole my sleeping bag and decided to take a catnap. The little fur ball. Where am I supposed to sleep? On the floor? As if!

I stretched and decided to walk towards the pond. I'll deal with that later. It wasn't that late yet anyways. As I got closer to the small body of water, I heard running water and decided to head for that. There was a little river leading into the pond. Running water was okay for drinking right?

Right. I should probably fill up that extra canteen just in case. Better safe than sorry.

As I headed back to where I set camp, I saw a little splash in the corner of my eye. My eyes widened when I realized that I could probably catch a Water Pokémon or something. I turned eagerly towards where I saw the splash, hoping to see what could be living in this pond. There couldn't have been many of them. This pond was kinda tiny. I scanned the rest of the pond and brightened when I saw a brown-looking fish on the farther side. It looked like it was sunbathing with how it was floating on its side like that. Do fish sunbathe? That's a laughable thought.

As I moved closer to get a better look, I stopped when a not-so-nice thought came up. Wasn't that how a fish looked like when it… died?

I looked closer, hoping that I was wrong but quickly noticed that the fish wasn't moving at all.

"Crap." I paled and basically started freaking out. What should I do, bury it? Leave it there? Is there something I'm supposed to do when a Pokémon passes on? Why the hell did I run into a dead Pokémon the second day I'm here.

During my panic attack, I didn't notice Eevee trudging her way to me, wondering what the hell was wrong with her Trainer. She apparently got annoyed with me blatantly ignoring her in favor of my mini freak out and head-butted my knee.

"Ow." I collapsed and writhed on the floor in pain. After a minute of holding my knee in agony, I sat up and glared at her. "What was that for? Can't you see I'm panicking over here? There's a dead Pokémon over there and I have no idea what to do!"

Eevee blinked and looked over to where I was pointing. I watched as her expression turned confused and she turned back to me, looking as if she wanted to question my mental health.

"What?" I said indignantly. "You're acting like nothing's… there," I finished weakly, as I noticed that the fish was no longer lying on its side a ways off, but now floated with its head partially out of the water near where I was sitting. It stared at me like it couldn't believe what I had just said.

"What?" I huffed. "You were the one laying on your side like that," I said exasperatedly. "I don't know anything about fish, so sue me for thinking you were dead."

The fish blinked and looked, amused? Whatever. It's not like I'm an expert on interpreting the facial expressions of a fish. It looked at me for a little longer, seemingly waiting for me to do something. When it realized I wasn't doing anything except staring at it, it started to look terribly sad. Crap. I just made the poor little fish sad. Eevee looked at the fish with concern, probably wondering the same thing as me.

Hey, maybe the Pokédex will shed some light on this mystery.

I rummaged through my pockets and found the handy computer. I waited impatiently for it to turn on, even if it only took a second, and pointed it towards the fish.

"Feebas, the Fish Pokémon."

Psh. No. It's the Dog Pokémon.

"Feebas's fins are ragged and tattered from the start of its life. Because of its shoddy appearance, this Pokémon is largely ignored. It is capable of living in both the sea and in rivers."

I gaped at the machine. In the corner of my eye, I could easily see the newly-dubbed Feebas sag even more in sadness after hearing the entry.

I resolved to change that.

I kneeled down near the edge of the water to get closer to the distraught fish.

"Hey," I said gently. The Feebas looked up at me with big eyes. "Don't worry about what the Pokédex said about you. I'm sure if, given the chance, you'd be able to prove everyone who ignored you wrong. They'd regret ever passing by you without a second glance."

The Feebas looked completely shocked by what I had just said, proving just how often she was probably ignored or thought of as insignificant.

I could relate. I went through something like that growing up. Now, I'm totally okay with it since it helped hide my Phantom identity but I know the feeli−

"ACK!"

I fell flat on my back after getting knocked down by fifteen pounds of excited fish. I let loose a breathless laugh after seeing the Feebas flop about on my stomach excitedly. She (I checked in the Pokédex) was probably happy that someone wasn't ignoring her and was, hopefully, comforted by my reassurance.

Once she calmed down, I gently placed her back in the water. She floated there and looked at me with a hopeful expression.

I looked at her apologetically. "Sorry about making you sad like that. I'm glad you're feeling better. Anyway, if you want, do you want to come with us? I'm kinda new at being a Trainer, but if you do come, I'll definitely try my best to make sure nobody ever underestimates you again. If they do, they are so going to regret it." I punched my fist into the air to emphasis my point.

The Feebas was nodding her head so fast she caused little waves to spread all over the pond. Seeing that, I grinned a grin so wide it probably went from ear to ear, grabbed a spare Pokéball at my waist, and tapped her gently with it.

I watched as she turned into red energy that was then sucked into the open Pokéball. The Pokéball jiggled somewhat and then made this weird ping noise. I assumed that meant the catch was a success so I turned to my first Pokémon and gave her a smug grin.

I showed her the Pokéball and cheekily said, "Looks like we got our first new buddy!" Eevee sniffed the Pokéball and gave me her own cute little grin. "I should probably let her out again huh?" Eevee nodded and I proceeded to do just that.

The Feebas floated there for a moment and looked at me with a happy expression.

"So do you want a name? I don't really want to call you Feebas all the time."

The Feebas looked absolutely floored at that and gaped at me. Huh. I guess the expression of gaping like a fish was kind of redundant here. She beamed at me and nodded.

"Okay. Let's see." I thought hard for a good one since she totally deserved one. Judging by the expressions she displayed earlier, she wasn't always treated right or was completely ignored. Let's see…

"Oh!" I clapped my hands together in delight. Thank you Tucker because I wouldn't have thought of this one. "I'll call you Mirinda! It means 'wonderful' in Esperanto. My friend Tucker tried to impress this girl by calling her that but the idiot forgot to tell her what it meant. Anyways, if we train hard, I'm sure everyone will think the name fits once they see what you're made of. I can even call you Mi for short if you're okay with it. Mirinda would probably be a bit of a mouthful during a battle anyway. Speed and timing is everything in one you know. And−"

I kept on rambling on, taking note of the newly-named Mirinda's awed expression, which hopefully meant she liked the name, and Eevee giving her approval of it. Maybe I have a shot at being a Trainer. I already won my first battle, even if it was mostly luck, and now I have a second Pokémon that was determined to prove everyone wrong about her. Now I just need to get around to actually training them.

But first, it was time for bed.

* * *

**Mirinda means 'wonderful' in Esperanto according to Google Translate. **

**Anyways, I've decided to start replying to the reviews of the previous chapter. Though this time, I'll reply to all the ones I got. I've been running into a lot of authors who do something similar and I love the idea! And thank you to everyone who favored, followed and reviewed. I'm sorry about the wait!**

**Chapter 1 (reviews):**

**Ninuhuju: I know right! It's absolutely hilarious to read stories with him acting like that.**

**KaeterinaRomanov: Thanks! I hope you liked this chapter.**

**Chapter 2 (reviews):**

**Silvershark Fang: He's awesome!**

**KaeterinaRomanov: I'm glad you think so. I wanted to do something new.**

**Dr. ForgottenFables: Thanks! And if you ever do get around to it, let me know. I'd be happy to read it.**

**Ninuhuju: It sure would! But if I'm feeling particularly evil than it will probably happen. Who knows. Haha!**

**Chapter 3 (reviews):**

**Silvershark Fang: Thank you so much! I was afraid I wasn't getting his personality right so thanks! I've already decided on what Danny's mischievous little Eevee will evolve into but thanks for the suggestions. You may have guessed it, you may have not. Only time will tell.**

**KT: Yup. I love Eevee too! I was leaning against not giving Danny one before since practically every Danny Phantom/Pokémon crossover has one involved in some way but… I couldn't resist. **

**KaeterinaRomanov: I hope this wasn't too late. But you know, life happens.**

**Ninuhuju: I know! I never even noticed until I started writing this story. It kind of makes me wonder how many other descriptions are similar.**


	5. Chapter 5

***Story edited as of 12-30-2015***

**You all are so awesome! I have over 1,000 views. I can't believe this! Thank you to those who followed, favored, and reviewed.**

* * *

~Chapter Five~

Well, I just found out that the Pokédex was way handier than I had first thought. Apparently, Mi had some ability called Swift Swim where she would become much faster when it's raining. That's pretty sweet. Eevee had the ability Adaptability, which sounded cool but seemed super complicated. Apparently any move she had that, at the moment, had the Normal type would be way stronger. Wow.

Mi's ability led me to see what moves she could learn. I knew there were weather changing moves that existed so if there was one that involved rain, it was a must have for her. It would be a great way to get control of the battlefield. The extra speed was a plus.

And there is! Rain Dance. Though apparently she could only learn it artificially…

That doesn't make sense. If a Pokémon can learn it artificially than it should be possible to learn it naturally. It's probably just harder or something.

The awesome part was that Eevee could learn it too!

But that would be for later (later meaning when I'm not too lazy to pack up camp). I don't want all my stuff soaking wet.

Right now I was having Eevee practice the accuracy of the moves she already had. Though, she didn't look like she needed much help in that department. Her aim was practically flawless. And apparently, rocks count as a Normal-typed opponent since Synchronize seemed to be working. Mi, on the other hand, was working on Tackle, or at least, the accuracy of it. When I had checked what moves she had, only Splash and Confuse Ray (no idea where that came from) were shown. She needed something to actually attack with, and ramming your opponent will almost never let you down. Trust me. I speak from experience.

_**CRASH!**_

I looked up from my musings and watched as Mi rammed into another rock jutting out of the surface of the water. She was getting some serious power behind her hits. The speeds that she could get to was amazing and it reminded me of the speeds my ghost fights usually went to. Having supernatural opponents did that to you.

Maybe I should get them both started on Rain Dance now? Just as soon as I pack up and figure out how to actually teach it. Do I have an umbrella? That might be important.

* * *

"Skitty, the Kitten Pokémon. Skitty has the habit of becoming fascinated by moving objects and chasing them around. This Pokémon is known to chase after its own tail and become dizzy."

Well, that was… interesting.

Oh well. Better focus.

Standing on the opposite side of the clearing was a young girl who I had, quite literally, run into earlier. After bumping heads, giving mutual apologies, and her gushing over how cute Eevee was, she promptly challenged me.

Well, who am I to deny a challenge?

Eevee was the first up, seeing as there wasn't any body of water in the current area for Mi to use. The girl had sent out a pink cat of a Pokémon that started chasing its tail around as soon as it was called out.

Maybe I could use its… playfulness, to my advantage.

I smirked.

"Ladies first," I said, giving her a mock bow.

She giggled. Then she composed herself and pointed dramatically. "Fake Out!"

I barely blinked and the Skitty was already upon my Eevee, completely startling her. It brought its paws together and a resounding clap echoed loudly in the area, causing Eevee to flinch away from the cat. What the hell?

"Snap out of it Eevee!" I yelled. Eevee shook her little head and focused back on the Skitty that had returned to chasing its tail. "Now use Sand Attack!"

Eevee wasted no time in turning around and kicked the dirt in the area towards her opponent.

"Skitty! Get out of the way!" the girl screamed. The Skitty stopped its chasing when it heard the girl, but it had been too wrapped up in playing to jump out of the way on time. The cat just ended up with a face full of dirt.

"Tackle!" I quickly commanded, wanting to take advantage of the Skitty's sputtering. Eevee ran forward and rammed into the annoyed cat, causing it to fly backwards. The poor thing landed in a heap in front of its Trainer.

"Skitty!" the girl pleaded. "You have to get up. Hurry!" The Skitty struggled to stand but I was already giving Eevee another command.

"Tackle it again," I said. Eevee barreled into her opponent, smacking it away right as it had just about gotten up. The Skitty didn't move again, already succumbing to unconsciousness.

The girl stood still for a moment, staring at her Pokémon in shock as Eevee ran in happiness towards me. She beamed up at me as she wagged her fluffy tail and I laughed in delight. Our second win!

I watched as the girl returned her defeated Pokémon with a sigh. She walked up to me, digging out what looked like a wallet and held out some cash to me. I stared at it completely confused for a second until realization dawned on me. The loser has to give some money to the winner. I totally forgot about that little rule!

"Thanks for the battle," I told her sincerely, grabbing the money. She smiled back.

"No, thank _you_ for the battle. There haven't been many Trainers around lately since the Leagues just ended. Most of the higher-level Trainers have gone home or are still at the various arenas." She sighed again and frowned. "Most of the Trainers I have seen have only tried to get through every battle with force. It's beyond annoying. You're the first who has some semblance of a strategy."

I blinked owlishly, not really expecting something like that to come out of her mouth. I frowned. "Are the Trainers around here really that bad? I wanted my Pokémon to get some better experience. There's only so much I can do battling rocks," I joked.

She snorted at that. "Unfortunately. You've seen my Skitty. She's my starter. I love her but she isn't always very… focused. And yet, we completely steamrolled everyone we've come across."

"Seriously!" I sighed. "Well I suppose I'll just try to avoid some of them, especially if it's obvious they don't know what they're doing."

The girl regarded me with sapphire amused eyes. "That's what I've been driven to do. You're actually the first that I've challenged in a few days."

I looked at her, just as amused. "Oh? And what changed your mind?"

"Your Eevee," she admitted. "She seemed pretty fit." She then sent me a smirk. "Though you didn't carry yourself like an arrogant idiot either."

Posing like Superman, I scoffed, "Arrogant? Pfft. That I am not!"

She shook her head and then stuck out her hand. "I'm Cassie by the way."

I returned the hand-shake. "I'm Danny."

"It's nice to meet you Danny. Are you competing in the Hoenn League?"

"Of course! Am I correct in assuming that you are as well?"

"Yup," she said with a pleased smile. "I better get going. You better make it to the League Danny! I want a rematch!"

"You bet!"

Then she left with a skip in her steps and with her brown hair bouncing up and down. Huh. Looks like I already made a human friend. That happened a lot faster than I thought it would.

* * *

I scowled, jumping out of the way as some invisible thing flew past me. It looked like that thing that bothered us the other day was back.

I jumped away again, feeling the wind slap my face as the thing rushed past me. Eevee growled and let loose a rather large Shadow Ball that corkscrewed everywhere, somehow hitting the thing. It let out a screech of pain and momentarily turned visible. I only caught a glimpse of purplish-blue that glowed ominously in the late evening.

Not wasting any time, I whipped out my Pokédex and pointed it towards where the Pokémon briefly appeared. It must have still been floating there since it registered in the Pokédex.

"Shuppet, the Puppet Pokémon. Shuppet is attracted by feelings of jealousy and vindictiveness. If someone develops strong feelings of vengeance, this Pokémon will appear in a swarm and line up beneath the eaves of that person's home."

If I wasn't feeling so offended by what the Pokédex had just insinuated, and if my current situation wasn't so dire, I might've laughed.

The Shuppet looked like a kid in a bed sheet wearing a witch hat or something.

Whatever. She's a ghost, so why not catch her? I had secretly wanted one since I found out that they existed, even if I thought it was kinda funny at first.

I searched wildly around me, hoping to catch a glimpse of her (why am I always running into girls?). Eevee threw another Shadow Ball near a tree and I felt more than saw the Shuppet shoot past. The Shuppet screamed a bone-shaking Screech attack that completely disoriented the both of us. Crap! How in the world could something so small give off such a loud noise!?

Oh wait, it's possible. I'm a half-living example of it.

I needed something that could make it easier to spot her.

Wait. That could work!

"Rain Dance!" I yelled, dodging away. Eevee looked somewhat confused by the command, but didn't argue. A cerulean ball of energy formed in front of her mouth, which she shot up towards the sky. Within five seconds, where the Shuppet gave another long, bone-shattering Screech, clouds momentarily formed, causing a downpour.

I searched warily, looking for anything out of the ordinary and finally spotted what I was looking for. There was an area to my left where the water hit something in midair. Looks like the Shuppet didn't know how to go invisible and intangible at the same time.

"Eevee, use Shadow Ball over there!" I pointed in the general direction of the ghost. Eevee spotted what I had seen, realization on her face, and quickly threw another Shadow Ball.

This time, the Shuppet went down, losing her invisibility as she hit the ground. I grabbed a Pokéball at my belt, pressing the button so it could grow larger, and threw it towards the Puppet Pokémon in one swift motion. I watched with bated breath as the Pokéball made it to the ghost in the lessening rain, turning the pained Pokémon into red energy, which got sucked into the open ball. It dropped to the ground as I jumped into the air.

"Yes!" I screamed with glee. I turned to my starter, who was just as soaked as me might I add, and beamed at her. "We got another buddy, and she's a ghost. This is so awesome! I knew Ghost Pokémon weren't a type that people ran into everyday so I totally did not expect this."

Eevee sent me a smile and looked towards the now-captured Shuppet. I turned towards it too, but blinked in surprise at what I was seeing. The Pokéball was wiggling ferociously, like the Pokémon inside was trying desperately to get out. I watched in frozen anticipation as the ball shook for a few more seconds then finally ceased all movement, a resounding ping sounded in the area.

"Yes!" I jumped in the air again. I was so glad nobody was here to see me act like an idiot.

* * *

Waiting in the Pokémon Center was so _boring_.

The battle against my new Shuppet had happened near the edge of Petalburg City, so instead of letting the Shuppet out as soon as I captured her, I decided to come to the Pokémon Center and let all my Pokémon get healed. We were in those woods for a pretty long while and I was itching for a shower.

It was nice that nobody had even looked twice at both our soaking selves. The locals were probably used to seeing Trainers coming into town in odd states.

I looked up as I heard footsteps. Nurse Joy (Seriously? Are they twins or something?) was walking up to the counter with three Pokéballs.

"Your Pokémon are fine. Your Feebas is in perfect health while your Eevee was mildly tired. Shuppet had a bit of bruising but she's perfectly fine now. You've done a wonderful job raising them. Your Feebas and Eevee were some of the happiest Pokémon I've seen in a while."

"Thanks!" I gave her a winning smile.

"Is there anything else I can do for you today?"

I nodded. "Can I have a room? And do you have any that has a fish tank or something in it?"

The pink-haired lady smiled and answered, "Yes we do. The tank is large enough for your Feebas to swim comfortably in."

"Thanks."

* * *

The room was essentially a mirror image of the room I stayed in back in Rustboro City. It was just a bit larger so that the tank could be squeezed in. Mi was certainly enjoying it. It was hard to spend time with her when there wasn't a body of water for her to swim in… unless I carried her, but that would look kind of stupid.

Eevee had already curled up in the bed, as usual. The Shuppet was floating in the darkest corner of the room, regarding me with interest. Apparently she loved scaring the daylights out of traveling Trainers, but had gotten frustrated with my lack of screaming my head off and running away in terror. That led me to explaining my current situation, with some help from Eevee, of being from a different dimension and whatnot. Both of my new Pokémon had stared at me in awe for a moment, but quickly got over it. Though my little floating Pokémon had become very interested in learning more about my ghost powers, especially about the various pranks I had mentioned during my explanation.

But enough of that. Time for a shower.

* * *

"So, do you want a name?" I asked the only ghost in the room.

The little ghost blinked at me and slowly nodded her head. I jumped onto the bed and started thinking. What would be a good name for her?

There were lots of ghost names out there, but I needed the perfect one for her.

Shadow? No. Phantom? Hah! Hmm… Maybe not a ghost name? I guess that's a bit cliché.

I frowned. "Do you want a name that has to do with ghosts? Or should it be something else?" The Shuppet did this odd movement that made it seem like she was shrugging her… shoulders?

I brightened. "What if I named you after something in space? You were kinda mysterious when we first met. We don't know everything about space and there are tons of mysteries that still need to be solved in that department." She looked a bit more interested now so I resolved to do that. Now what should I name her? Maybe after a constellation? Or maybe something that has the same color as her?

"What about Comet?" I asked, liking how the name rolled off my tongue. "You were shooting all over the place like one."

The little Pokémon seemed to mull it over for a bit before nodding decisively.

I smiled. "Great! Now that we've got that done, let's go explore. I'm a little curious about the Gym. We won't actually challenge it, but maybe we can see a Gym battle or two? Just to see how everything is run."

* * *

The Petalburg Gym wasn't what I was expecting.

It was a Japanese-styled building with a blue-colored roof. I had expected a building that looked more… rugged. It's supposed to be a place where Pokémon battles take place after all.

"Good evening young man," someone spoke behind me. I turned around. "Are you looking for a Gym battle?"

"No," I answered the curious man with a sheepish smile. He had blue-tinted hair and was wearing a red jacket. "I just wanted to see it. I don't think I'm ready for one yet."

The man looked at Eevee, who was still staring curiously at the building, and responded, "Well your Eevee looks well trained." Then he looked over at where Comet was floating, observing the conservation. "And the fact that you have a Shuppet shows some skill. Ghost Pokémon are notoriously difficult to capture."

I shrugged at that. "I guess I was just lucky. Are you the Gym Leader?"

"I am," he confirmed. Reaching out his hand, he responded with a smile, "I'm Norman."

I returned the hand-shake. "Danny."

Norman opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted.

"Woah!" I turned towards the sound of the voice. He was a young boy who looked around seven years old. I guessed that he was Norman's kid since his hair was the same color. "Is this Shuppet yours?" the boy questioned me eagerly.

Completely thrown by the question, it took me a moment to answer. "Uh. Yeah, she is."

"Really!" The kid was practically vibrating in excitement. "How'd you catch it? I've heard they're really really hard to catch. How'd you do it? Is she strong? Are you going to challenge my dad? He's super strong you know. I bet you'll lose. And youhaveanEevee! Wow! How'dyougettworarePokémon?"

Geez. Calm down kid. He was talking so fast I couldn't even make sense of half the things he said.

I heard a deep chuckle behind me. "Now son, you need to calm down. I don't think Danny here even understood you."

The kid finally stopped jumping around so much and looked completely abashed. "Sorry Danny. I've wanted to start my journey but I'm too _young_," the kid said with absolute loathing. He looked up hopefully at me. "What other Pokémon do you have?"

I opened up my mouth to answer since I actually understood that question, but a _third_ voice interrupted me.

"Seriously Max." The feminine voice sounded annoyed. "Stop bothering everyone about their Pokémon. Every Trainer had to wait to start their journey. You're no exception."

I turned, once again, to see who was talking. A young girl, about my age (at least by appearance), who was dressed mostly in red with a bandana that tied back her light brown hair, was staring at Max with irritated eyes.

"May," Norman said with a disapproving tone. "Your brother is only curious. There is no need to bite his head off."

"Yeah May," Max said with a superior smirk. "Besides, you probably won't get far as a Trainer."

The newly-dubbed May practically turned red with rage. Huh. I'll have to commend her for having such a monochrome outfit. She exploded, "Why you little−"

"That is enough." Norman's firm voice practically held an echo because of how quiet it had gotten. Even Eevee and Comet were stunned. "Both of you apologize to each other. Now!"

The siblings both grumbled, mumbled apologies, then turned away from each other with their noses held high in the air and their arms crossed. It was amusing to watch.

"Now Danny," Norman said with a pleasant tone, as if that confrontation had never happened. "How long have you been a Trainer?"

"Not long," I admitted. I watched as the siblings turned slightly towards the conversation in my peripheral vision, both trying to subtly listen. "I just started and I'm trying to get some training in before I challenge any of the Gyms. I don't think I'm ready yet."

"So what'd you pick?" Max asked, now spontaneously standing right next to me with bright, eager eyes.

"Huh," was my intelligent response.

"I mean," there was a slight flicker of annoyance in the boy's eyes, "which Pokémon did you pick as your starter?" At my blank stare, he decided to elaborate. "Treecko, Mudkip, or Torchic?"

I frowned. "None. I got my starter from the leader of my home." I gestured towards Eevee, who was patiently waiting for the conversation to be over. "I haven't even met Professor Birch yet. I am heading for his lab though."

"Really?" Norman asked with a curious tone. "And where are you from, if I may ask?"

"Evolution Island," I admitted.

I noted May's and Max's confused expressions but Norman stunned state of mind made it obvious that he knew exactly what I was talking about. The man hid his surprise well though and continued on like where I was from was of no significance to him.

"I was told that a new Trainer from that island was going to be competing. I can't say I expected you to be here of all places."

I shrugged, not really having anything to say to that. I wasn't very surprised that he knew about the Clockwork Clan. I got the impression that the Gym Leaders would know, along with the more well-known researchers. Norman looked like he wanted to question me further, probably about what it's like living in such a place, but seemed to decide against it.

"You said that you were heading towards Littleroot, correct?"

I was confused by this line of questioning, but nodded. "That's right."

Norman smiled. "Well my daughter May," he gestured towards the still-confused girl, "is starting her journey, just like you. She needs to go see Professor Birch. If it's not too much to ask, can you accompany her? I'd feel much better if she wasn't traveling on her own when she doesn't even have a Pokémon yet. You don't need to stay the entire time, just until she gets a starter."

I blinked, a little stunned, but then shrugged. "I don't mind. It'd be nice to be traveling with someone. I don't really know these parts very well."

Norman chuckled. "Imagine that." The man then turned to his daughter. "Well May, I suggest you finish packing." He turned back to me. "When will you be leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Excellent." He brought his hands together, obviously pleased that his daughter wouldn't be traveling all by her lonesome, at least in the beginning. "Do you need a place to stay for tonight?"

"No thank you." I smiled at the kind man. "I've already got a room at the Pokémon Center. I appreciate the offer though."

"Alright." He smiled and started walking towards his Gym, grabbing his stunned children on the way. "We'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow," I confirmed.

He nodded, satisfied, and then left me to my musings.

A little stunned by what had just happened, I just stared towards the direction that the Gym Leader and his children left in until Comet nudged me with her head spike.

I shook my head and chuckled. "Sorry girls. I was just surprised by all that." I sent both Pokémon a grin. "It looks like we've got a traveling buddy for a little while."

Both Pokémon looked in the direction I had just been staring at with contemplating eyes. I let them have their serious moment… until my stomach gave a very hungry growl.

I blushed as my Pokémon both turned to give me amused looks.

"What?" I said indignantly. Then I pouted, "I'm hungry."

* * *

**IMPORTANT: The Fairy type does not exist in this story. I just wanted to make it clear because I don't think it would actually come up in my story. This means that Kalos and the Pokémon from this region don't exist either, mostly because one of the Legendaries is a Fairy, so it wouldn't make sense otherwise. I just don't think I'm comfortable enough with the Pokémon or any of the Fairy moves to be able to write about them with confidence, especially since some of the Pokémon I grew up with now have the Fairy typing and I'd probably forget and mess that up.**

**Chapter 4 (reviews):**

**Phantomspirit12: Wow! Thank you so much! Hmm… I'm not sure about the beta reader thing. On one hand, I feel like I should have one since this is my first story, but I also want to see how well I can do on my own… I'll have to think about that more. I'll definitely let you know if I change my mind. Thanks for the offer. It's not something I expected so early in writing this story. Gengar huh? I hadn't thought of that. It's a great idea and it would be really funny, but I wanted him to have a Shuppet. Thanks for the suggestion though. Shinies? I completely forgot about that. Maybe I'll give him one. Umbreon is my favorite too! But, I'm not going to spoil what Eevee will evolve into. That's a surprise! I've got Pokémon X. I don't know if I have anything you'd be interested in though… I love Pokémon but I mostly play the games for the story. Anyways, I really don't mind long reviews. Make them as long as you want! I'm open to all feedback you've got! Thank you so much for the review!**

**Ninuhuju: I know right! I have no idea why everyone seems to forget about that.**

**KaeterinaRomanov: You're welcome! I'm glad that you liked Eevee's first battle and that you liked Mi. I hope you like who Danny's third Pokémon was.**


	6. Chapter 6

***Story edited as of 12-30-2015***

* * *

~Chapter Six~

What was wrong with this girl?

She clearly didn't like Pokémon, so why in the world was she becoming a Trainer? I pitied whatever Pokémon that ended up in her care. Until she got her act together and actually got to know the Pokémon for the amazing creatures they were, she wasn't going to get anywhere in whatever career she chose. I'm not even from this world and I can tell that much.

Not that I said any of that to her face. I'd probably get something along the line of a boot to the butt with how this girl's temper flared during the argument I had the opportunity to watch yesterday.

I sent an apologetic look towards a disgruntled Eevee, who was currently being held in a death-grip by May, my _temporary_ traveling partner. I knew that her dad would probably feel better if I traveled with her the entire time, but there was no way that was happening. I just didn't have the patience for that.

Besides, both of my Pokémon that were traveling outside of their Pokéballs didn't seem to like the current situation either. I allowed for May to hold Eevee so she'd feel less insecure about traveling to Littleroot with a ghost leering at her.

As you can see, Comet was way passed the point of patience with how May looked at the forest around her with uneasiness, obviously wanting to be anywhere but here.

I tried not to hold it against her, because there was probably a very good reason for it, but it was just so hard.

I was fascinated by this world and yet May didn't seem to care for it at all.

Oh well. I didn't come here to play psychologist. That was Jazz's job. My job was to live the temporary life of a normal kid of the Pokémon World, which definitely didn't involve analyzing the problems of some girl I barely knew.

I sighed and decided to look through my Pokédex to pass the time. We were almost there anyway, having passed Oldale Town an hour ago (I wanted to check out the ruins nearby but nooo). Petalburg, Littleroot, and Oldale were a lot closer in proximity than Rustboro was, so it was taking very little time.

Hey! I haven't looked at Comet's moves yet. Maybe I can think of some training that we could do after we talked to Professor Birch.

I discretely scanned Comet with the Pokédex. Since she was busy with being generally annoyed at the situation, May was too busy watching Comet with distrust, and Eevee was too busy being just as annoyed as Comet, nobody noticed what I was doing.

I was glad for that, since my eyes bugged out of their sockets when I saw how many moves Comet knew.

Knock Off, Screech, Night Shade, Spite, Shadow Sneak, Will-O-Wisp, Feint Attack, Gunk Shot, and Hex.

Well, by the looks of her repertoire, scaring the daylights out of passing Trainers wasn't the only thing Comet did. That's awesome news! And Eevee can even teach her Shadow Ball!

* * *

Professor Birch's place wasn't all that imposing. It looked like a normal house or something.

"So this is Professor Birch's place huh," May commented while she stared at the front door with a bit of apprehension clouding her face.

I shrugged. "I suppose." I turned to her curiously. "Do you know which of the starters you want?"

The girl frowned, opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by someone answering the door.

The green-haired man smiled kindly to us and shot a curious glance to May. "Are you May Maple, by any chance?"

May smiled. "Yep. I'm here for my starter."

"Excellent." The man opened the door wider, gesturing for the two of us to enter. "And who are you, young man, if I may ask?"

"I'm Danny Phantom sir," I answered, feeling a little odd saying that name, even if I was technically in my ghost form. "I was told to come here to speak with Professor Birch. I ran into May over in Petalburg," I added as an explanation.

"Really? Am I correct in assuming that you were challenging the Gym? Norman is an excellent battler."

"I just wanted to see the Gym," I answered honestly. I gestured to Eevee, who had been calmly walking beside me. "I just started my journey and I want to get a bit more training before I try any of the Gyms. I'd rather not make a fool of myself."

The man snorted, but composed himself a moment later into the professional he was. "That's good thinking," he chuckled. "You have no idea how often young Trainers try to get to the Gyms as fast as they can with little to no training."

I gave a smirk. "Oh I think I have a good idea. I've run into plenty of Trainers who don't seem to know what strategy even _means_." I made a face. "It's annoying. I've only gotten a handful of decent battles!"

"Hello there!"

I turned towards the new voice, startled out of the previous conversation. My eyes widened after seeing who had spoken.

I was immediately reminded of Dad.

The man walked forward and smiled. "May! My you've grown! Are you ready to get your starter?"

May gave a curt nod. She didn't seem very sure about the entire concept. Not at all.

I watched as the guy turned to me and immediately, his eyes widened with recognition. "Danny Phantom, I presume."

"That's right. I'm guessing one of the Leagues told you I was coming."

Professor Birch's (I assumed it was him since he knew who I was) eyes were drowned in interest, probably because of the knowledge of my fake home. "Clockwork, the leader of your home, was the one who informed me of your arrival." The guy was practically vibrating in excitement at the fact that he had the opportunity to talk to _the_ Clockwork. Pfft.

Birch frowned, showing a bit of sadness. "He didn't talk for long though."

I barely suppressed my giggles after hearing that. Eevee wasn't too far behind. May just stood off to the side in faint confusion.

"Anyway," the man perked up again. "May, how about we start you off on your journey. I'm sure you're excited to meet your starter." The Professor put the bag hanging at his side onto a table nearby.

"Yeah," I heard May mumble, disgruntled. "Super excited."

I watched in interest as the man pulled out three unimpressive Pokéballs, where I assumed the Hoenn starter Pokémon resided in.

"Hey Professor Birch! Pikachu and I are gonna head out now. Thanks so much for the help! Pikachu is feeling great now."

I turned towards where Professor Birch had entered the room and saw a boy, about twelve or thirteen years old, with a red hat and a rather large-sized yellow rodent hitching a ride on his shoulder. What I assumed to be Pikachu, looked curiously around the room, brightened when it saw Eevee, jumped down to the floor, and seemed to strike up a conversation with my friend.

"Hi," the boy said when he saw where his Pokémon went. "I'm Ash." He chuckled. "And you've already met Pikachu."

I grinned. "Yeah, I think I have. I'm Danny by the way." After shaking his extended hand, I looked over at Pikachu and pulled out my Pokédex to scan Ash's Pokémon.

"Pikachu, the Mouse Pokémon. Whenever Pikachu comes across something new, it blasts it with a jolt of electricity. If you come across a blackened berry, it's evidence that this Pokémon mistook the intensity of its charge."

So Pikachu was an Electric type. Awesome! Electricity tends to pack a punch. I should know.

Ash nodded towards the two conversing Pokémon. "Is that Eevee yours?"

I grinned again. "She sure is. She's my starter."

Ash gave his own excited grin. "Really?! Pikachu was my starter." He seemed to want to add to that but Professor Birch made himself known.

"I see that you're both excited, but I do need to give young May here her starter."

Ash's eyes widened in excitement as he turned towards the only human girl present in the room. She didn't seem to know what to do with herself in the current situation.

"Really?" Ash exclaimed with glee. "You must be super excited! The night before I started my journey, I couldn't even go to sleep."

May gave the boy a strained smile, obviously very uncomfortable by everyone's growing excitement.

"Alright. Let's get down to business," the Professor stated jovially. He grabbed the first Pokéball nearest to his hand. "The three Pokémon that you will be choosing from are Treecko, Mudkip, and Torchic. Of course, I'm sure you already knew that."

He tossed the Pokéball, allowing for a green gecko-like Pokémon to form. It stood absolutely still as it stared at May with enough intensity to burn a hole through the wall.

May backed away quickly, obviously not liking the little gecko. "Um," she stuttered uneasily, "C-can I see the other two?"

"Cool!" the boy beside me stated enthusiastically. "Is this a Water type?" he asked the Professor.

"No," he stated, happy to see how much Ash seemed to like Pokémon. "Treecko here is a Grass type."

Curious once again, I scanned the newly-named Pokémon with my Pokédex.

"Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon. Treecko has small hooks on the bottom of its feet that enable it to scale vertical walls. This Pokémon attacks by slamming foes with its thick tail."

Another Pokéball snapped open to reveal a primarily blue-colored, quadruped Pokémon.

"That's a Water type," Ash said with confidence.

"That's correct," Birch stated with a pleased smile. "You seem to like Pokémon very much Ash."

Birch received an excited grin as the reply. I gave a small smile of my own. I'd probably get along much better with Ash than I did with May. Maybe I can ask him for a battle later. His Pikachu seemed pretty fit.

"Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. The fin on Mudkip's head acts as highly sensitive radar. Using this fin to sense movements of water and air, this Pokémon can determine what is taking place around it without using its eyes."

I gave a low whistle of appreciation. Damn. That would be super useful in a battle. I wonder how it works.

The Mudkip stared at May with disinterested, dull eyes, not seeming to care that it was making her uncomfortable.

"The last Pokémon is Torchic, a Fire type." The last Pokéball had an orange chick of a Pokémon emerge from within it.

"Torchic, the Chick Pokémon. Torchic sticks with its Trainer, following behind with unsteady steps. This Pokémon breathes fire of over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, including fireballs that leave the foe scorched black."

1,800 degrees Fahrenheit! That's hot! And a lot of power for such a little creature.

The first thing it did was trot up to May and rub its face against her leg. May gave the little Pokémon a small smile.

"This one's not so bad. I'll take it."

"Excellent choice May." Professor Birch handed May the Torchic's Pokéball. He grabbed a Pokédex on the table and handed it to May as well, all the while returning both the Mudkip and Treecko to their respective Pokéballs.

He then grabbed five minimized, probably empty, Pokéballs. "These are yours as well. To start you off if you want to catch any new Pokémon." May took them and nodded her thanks. "Well I believe you're all set for your journey then! Good luck!"

"Well now that that's done." I turned towards Ash. "Ash? You've been on your journey for a while now, right?"

Ash blinked and nodded. "That's right," he answered, expression curious.

"Well, is it okay if we have a battle? I haven't been running into too many people who've given a challenge and I was wondering…" I left the question hanging.

Ash gave an ear-to-ear grin. "Of course!" He turned to his Pokémon. "Looks like we'll be having our first battle in Hoenn pretty early on buddy!"

The electric rodent chattered eagerly, cheeks sparking with barely concealed excitement. Eevee wasn't too far behind.

"A battle eh? I've got a field in the back that you both may use. Right this way."

* * *

Eevee and Pikachu both stood on all fours, ready and awaiting orders. Ash was on the opposite side of the field, face excited but serious, waiting for Professor Birch to signal the start of the battle.

I, on the other hand, was just as excited on the outside, but on the inside, I was starting to feel the first trickle of nervousness. On the way over, Birch had commented about how well Ash did in some other League, which didn't exactly help my nerves. I didn't need to know that. Now I can't freakin' concentrate!

Focus Danny. Treat this just like a fight with Vortex, or Undergrowth. It doesn't matter. Just focus!

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town and Danny Phantom of Evolution Island," Professor Birch announced. "Begin!"

"Pikachu use Agility!" Ash commanded. Pikachu wasted no time in dashing across the field, leaving faint images of itself behind whenever switching to another side of the field. I narrowed my eyes. This could get tricky.

"Eevee! Use Swift and spread it everywhere!" I yelled. Eevee opened her mouth and yellow, sparkling stars burst out. She swung her head everywhere to get the most coverage. Pikachu didn't seem very bothered at all and just jumped over the attack as if it were nothing, cheeks sparking.

"Thunderbolt," Ash smirked. Pikachu let loose a ridiculous amount of electricity while airborne, which headed straight for my still-attacking Pokémon.

"Use Quick Attack! Get away from there!" I screamed, hoping Eevee could dodge all that electricity. Eevee stopped the Swift and promptly sped away in a burst of white light. She still got hit by a majority of the attack though. She landed with a wince, already barely standing. Wow. That Pikachu was strong.

I quickly ran through Eevee's move set in my head, desperate for something. Bite would probably be a bad idea, seeing as the Pikachu was constantly emitting sparks from its cheeks. Physical contact should be avoided, so that took out Tackle and Quick Attack as well. I growled inwardly, promising myself to teach Eevee and the rest of my team a wider variety of moves. I only had Shadow Ball and Swift to attack with.

"Shadow Ball! Aim for where it's about to land!" I said quickly. Pikachu was still in the air, having jumped pretty high earlier. The Shadow Ball formed in seconds and was released, hitting the ground right as Pikachu landed, throwing the electric rodent off balance.

"Pikachu!" Ash called in distress. "You can do it! Double Edge!"

Not knowing what that move did, my eyes widened seeing Pikachu burst forward, surrounded by a golden hue. Admittedly, I panicked. "Eevee, you have to dodge that! Hurry! Use Quick Attack to help!"

Eevee did as told and luckily got out of the way in time.

"Use Shadow Ball again."

"Counter with Thunder!"

Both Eevee and Pikachu quickly charged up their respective attacks, Pikachu's being much more menacing than my Eevee's. I bit my lip in apprehension. This wasn't going to end well.

Both Pokémon let loose their attacks within seconds. Unfortunately, it was no contest. Pikachu's Thunder ate up the Shadow Ball right after they made contact and zoomed over to where Eevee stood still in shock.

"Eevee!" I cried as I heard my Pokémon's pained scream. Pikachu, ceased the attack quickly, wincing at Eevee, who was already slumped to the floor. Ash's face mirrored his Pokémon's expression. I quickly ran over to her, already knowing the battle was over.

"Eevee is unable to battle," Professor Birch stated, unnecessarily in my opinion. "Pikachu is the winner. This match goes to Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town."

"Eevee," I said worriedly, cradling her burnt form, "can you hear me?"

Eevee stirred a bit and blearily opened her dazed eyes, showing me she was still a trooper. I sighed in relief.

"Sorry," Ash said dejectedly, a worried Pikachu atop his shoulder. "That last attack was probably overkill."

I gave a small smile in return. "That's okay. It's still a battle after all. It's not like you knew exactly how strong Eevee was. It's probably more my fault that I challenged you."

Ash frowned at that and opened his mouth to say something but Professor Birch beat him to it.

"No," he said firmly. May was standing a ways off, cradling her Torchic tightly while watching Eevee with a worried frown. "This isn't anyone's fault. Pokémon battles are meant for you to challenge yourself and for both Trainer and Pokémon to grow. Yes, there was quite a bit of difference in level between both of your Pokémon, but that shouldn't matter. Learn from the experience and improve."

All three of us nodded our understanding. I stood up, Eevee clenched tightly to my chest, but gently enough not to further hurt her.

"Where's the Pokémon Center? I didn't really see it on the way here."

"There is no Pokémon Center here," I heard Ash say sourly.

My eyes widened at that. "What!?" I exclaimed. "This is a pretty big town. Why the heck is there no Pokémon Center?"

"That is a very good question and one I should ask the Hoenn League," the Professor mumbled the last part under his breath. He gave me a small smile. "Don't worry Danny. Eevee will be fine. I've got emergency medical equipment with me here in the lab. Follow me."

* * *

"I'm so glad you're alright," I mumbled into Eevee's fur. Eevee licked my cheek in reassurance.

"Alright you three," I turned to Professor Birch, "Ash and May, you're both all set. I suggest you two travel together for a bit. May, you could learn a lot from Ash since he's competed in more than one League in the past. Ash, since you're not from Hoenn, May can act as a sort of guide until you get your bearings."

Ash smiled. "Well I'm alright with that. The more the merrier!" He turned to May. "Are you okay with that?"

May smiled. "Yeah. I'm fine with that."

Ash turned to me. "What about you Danny?"

I shook my head, hiding my grimace. Hopefully Ash can deal with May a lot better than I could. I didn't have anything against the girl, but the trip here wasn't very fun for both me and my Pokémon. "I've got to talk to the Professor for a bit and I think I'm going to stick around the city and get some extra training done. Thanks for the offer though."

"Alright," Ash said cheerily. "Are you competing in the Hoenn League?"

I gave him a grin. "You bet!"

"Awesome. I'll see you then."

Both trainers left quickly, waving their hands in goodbye as they walked to the front door. I waved back. I'd love to battle Ash again, when I'm more experienced of course.

"Alright," the Professor said excitedly, "Now time for business."

I gave a weak smile in return. Hopefully, this won't take too long. I already get annoyed by my _phans_ back home. I honestly thought I wouldn't have to deal with this.

* * *

**Thank you for all the support. You all are amazing!**

**Anyway, just as a heads up, the next chapter might not come out for a while. Not that I have writer's block or anything, I just want to get an outline done for this story. I probably should have done that before I uploaded the first chapter, but I was too excited.**

**Also, I put a little blurb on my profile about what Danny's whereabouts are and the state of his team. It's so all of you can reference it if you need it. **

**Chapter 5 (reviews):**

**GirlFish: Yup! And Shuppet does have an evolution. It evolves into Banette. I hope you like what I have in mind for the rest of Danny's team! I'm thinking of giving him a shiny, as that was suggested earlier. I'm not sure yet. We'll just have to see! I don't want to give spoilers! The Fairy type doesn't exist in this story. I explained that at the end of an earlier chapter. So no, Danny's Eevee will not become a Sylveon. Misdreavus is a nice suggestion, but I'm trying to give him a diverse team. He's already got a ghost. Writing what it was like for Mi before she ran into Danny is interesting. I might do that as a side story. Hmm… I'll have to think about that more.**

**Phantomspirit12: Thank you! I hope this chapter amazed you as well! Thanks so much! I'm glad that I'm improving. Yup! This is my first story. I'm definitely going to write more stories. It's so fun! But I'm going to finish this one before I upload new ones. Glad you liked Comet! I can see that happening too! Yep, Ash is in this story. Hopefully he was in character. I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to me a few times with the Fairy type. It's so frustrating! Thanks for the review.**

**GarionRiva: Thanks! And nope, not the whole time.**

**KaeterinaRomanov: Thanks! Glad you liked it! And no, they were thinking about how it would turn out. They didn't think they'd be traveling with anyone else besides Danny, seeing as he is from a different dimension and doesn't necessarily know anyone.**

**Ninuhuju: Not the whole time. The most would be for a few days or something, if they run into each other.**


	7. Chapter 7

**All previous chapters have been edited as of ****07-27-****2015 in punctuation, grammar, etc. I had to add a few things to chapter 4 though. You don't need to go back and read it since they were small changes that I will summarize now.**

**The first one involved Danny's battle with the Gengar. Basically, some researchers and such occasionally come by Evolution Island to ask questions about any strange events that happen (this has been happening more often lately). Danny recognized Gengar because he read the report involving Pokémopolis, where a giant Gengar and Alakazam nearly destroyed Pallet Town. This occurred earlier in the anime.**

**The next one has to do with the many locations in the anime. I had been using the map of Hoenn from the games, but the problem with this was that Ash and his friends visited a lot of places that weren't on that map. So in this story, I'm going to assume that all those places that were seen in the anime were not on the **_**direct**_** paths between the more major cities. People have to go off the main paths quite a bit to get to all the other places. When Danny is traveling to Petalburg, he just mentions that there were I few places he could go to, but wouldn't at the moment because he didn't want to get lost.**

**The third one has to do with Danny's reaction to the Pokédex entry of Feebas. I think that having him explode as his reaction to it like I original had was more along the line of what Sam would do, not Danny. I changed it. So now, Danny comforts his Feebas and reassures her, instead of exploding. **

**The last one involves the meaning of Mirinda, the name of Danny's Feebas. I wanted to check that I got the meaning right, but couldn't find where I had found that. Since I want to be accurate, I'll be going with the meaning on Google Translate. Mirinda means 'wonderful' in Esperanto according to Google Translate. **

**No other changes had to do with the storyline. Any other changes involved adding commas, switching/added words in for better flow, etc.**

* * *

~Chapter Seven~

I sighed in exasperation for the third time as I waited for Professor Birch to return. When Clockwork had first told me that I had to come to Littleroot, I didn't really think much of it. I didn't question the ghost on why I had to come, since he'd probably reply with an "All is as it should be" and then proceed to ignore me as I complained of the vagueness.

Besides, this lab was the only major place in the town anyway, so it didn't take much time to figure out that this was where I had to be.

I looked towards the doorway that Professor Birch had disappeared through. He had announced that he needed to get a notepad and whatnot to record anything of interest that we talked about during what I knew was going to turn into, at least, an hour long discussion.

Another agonizingly long minute later and the Professor finally came back.

"Sorry about the wait. I couldn't find any of my things for some reason," he stated, getting comfortable on the chair nearby with his pen ready to go.

I gave him a weak smile in return. "It's okay I guess. What do you want to know?"

"Well, my area of expertise is Pokémon distribution and their habitats," the man explained, very eagerly if I might add. "I've had the opportunity to travel to numerous places, studying the various conditions Pokémon like to live in. Evolution Island, because of the many restrictions that I'm sure you are aware of, was not one of them," he finished in a sad tone.

I nodded at that, understanding what he was talking about. People couldn't just come by the island whenever they felt like it. The Pokémon League was _very_ strict about that kind of stuff. People, even if they were one of the few who had the honor of knowing about the existence of Evolution Island, had to go through quite a bit of paperwork in order to come by without being treated as a hostile threat. The island did have a huge population of the Eevee evolutionary line after all. There were also many rare pieces of literature (first-hand accounts about the ghost-turned-humans of the past encountering ancient civilizations) and other such things that were beyond priceless located there.

Clockwork hadn't actually specified this, but I'm pretty sure most of the people who knew about the place thought of us ghosts as the descendants of some ancient society that they might not have heard about. The fact that we had countless first-hand accounts of the ancient times brought about that theory, so the Pokémon League was very sensitive of who was allowed to come. Anyone who did come had to have a very good reason for it if they weren't a representative checking up on us.

Asking questions about the Shamouti prophecy was one thing, but asking permission to come study the Pokémon habitats on the island and how us 'humans' interacted with them was a completely different thing. They probably thought that we'd get hostile towards them seeing as that wasn't part of the agreement (and it would be hard to keep up the elaborate illusion that Clockwork had worked so hard for). What I think Birch wanted to do sounded like something an anthropologist from the Human Realm would do (just add in the Pokémon), which usually involved studying the chosen population for at least a year.

"I'm guessing you want me to explain the habitats of the Pokémon that live there?" I asked. Professor Birch's vigorous nodding indicated that I had hit the nail right on the head.

"I don't really mind which you start with first," the Professor explained, "but I've been fascinated by how there appears to be an ideal habitat for the Eevee and all _seven_ of its evolutionary forms on the island. I'm also aware that your people seem to live in perfect harmony alongside the indigenous Pokémon. I must say, something like that is a very rare thing to come by."

I chuckled. "Yeah. I don't really think there would be too many places like that." I stopped and thought about where I could start, silently thanking Clockwork for forcing me to have these kinds of conversations with the Observants. I'm sure you could guess how fun that was, but I couldn't get out of it, especially since Clockwork stopped time until I was perfectly capable of answering questions about my 'origins' without any slipups.

"Well, you have to remember that a lot of the Pokémon mingle with each other so sometimes where they stay isn't what you'd think as ideal for them," I started. I took a deep breath and continued. "The Eevee, for instance, go just about anywhere except places with the most extreme weather patterns. Most of the Eevee do tend to stay in the urban areas along with the farmlands and Lea Forest. The Espeon and Umbreon have similar behaviors as the Eevee, except that the Espeon prefer the urban areas while the Umbreon tend to slink around the darker areas on the island, such as the deeper parts of Lea Forest."

I stopped talking for a bit to gather my thoughts. The Professor wasted no time in scrawling down everything I had said, probably word-for-word, with euphoria similar to my dad whenever ghosts were involved.

"The Leafeon tend to stay in Lea Forest, though a good amount stay in the farms and help out with the crops. The Glaceon like Mount Glace of course. It's a large, snow-covered mountain on the north side of the island. There is a volcano, Mount Flare, on the south side of the island where the Flareon tend to stay. Some like the hotter areas of the beaches. The Vaporeon like the beaches, but some stay around the farmers and help tend to the crops with the Leafeon." I sound so smart!

"Fascinating," the Professor whispered with delight, his pen seemed to be moving at the speed of light. "And all of this on one island. That's magnificent!" He stopped for a moment and sighed in envy. "What I would give to go there."

"The Jolteon stay in and around the Jolt Power Plant," I continued, not really paying attention to what the Professor was saying. It's not like I had anything to say about that anyway. I didn't really want to lose my train of thought either. "We are a self-sustaining island after all, so we need to have our own way to get power."

I watched as Professor Birch stopped for a moment and took on a look of amusement. I was confused about what was so funny until he asked, "Whoever named the locations on your home island didn't seem to be very creative."

I snorted at that, understanding what he meant. My parents were a good example of that. They were geniuses in their own field, and yet when it came to naming their own inventions, they tended to just slap 'Fenton' in front of whatever appliance was robbed of their normal duties. Fenton Thermos anyone.

The Professor put his pen and notepad down. "If you don't mind, may I go grab a tape recorder? I'd rather not waste time writing things down when we could have a normal discussion about this."

I shrugged, not really minding. I'd rather not have to repeat any of this. My throat was already starting to feel dry.

The pleased Professor smiled and left to find the tape recorder. I sighed and scratched a sleeping Eevee (as usual) behind her ears. She purred and turned over on my lap, snuggling into my stomach.

Bored, I looked around the room we were in and wondered how long it would take the man to find his tape recorder. He had taken quite a while to find a pen and notepad after all.

I soon found out that it only took another minute. Why he hadn't grabbed that in the first place I'll probably never know.

"Alright," he stated, pleased that the conversation could continue. "Could you explain the interactions between your people and the Pokémon, and a bit on the evolutions? There must be a way for an Eevee to evolve into each form if the entire evolutionary line is around."

"There is," I confirmed. "We occasionally find Fire, Thunder, and Water Stones around the island. Umbreon and Espeon just need the time of day. As for Glaceon, there is an Ice Rock located deep inside a cave near the top of Mount Glace. The same could be said for Leafeon, except that the Moss Rock needed for evolution is deep inside Lea Forest," I finished, thrilled that I remembered to say all that in one go.

"So basically," the Professor summarized, "Evolution Island is the perfect place for Eevee to flourish and evolve into whichever evolution that each specimen happened to prefer."

"Pretty much. They seem to like it there and don't really mind what we do. They even help us get work done faster, so nobody is very stressed about getting any essential needs done," I said, leaving out the fact that there was hardly anyone ever there in the first place. He didn't need to know that.

"Interesting," the man muttered, tapping the pen to his chin. I thought he had put that away. "Of all the evolutionary forms, is there a larger population of Umbreon, Espeon, and Leafeon? I cannot see there being too many of the others as three of them rely on a limited supply of stones, since each can only be used once. The Ice Rock seems to be hard to get to and many Eevee may be hard pressed to get to it, even with determination."

"There are more of those three like you said, but we are starting to believe that those stones aren't as limited as people once thought." This snapped him out of his state of contemplation.

"Really?" he questioned, giving me his undivided attention. "What do you mean by that?"

"The Eevee and its evolutionary forms have been on Evolution Island for centuries," I started, hesitantly at first. I wanted to make sure I got this info right. After all, I'm no geologist. "Even though the stones have been used constantly throughout the years, there always seems to be the same amount of Jolteon, Vaporeon, and Flareon. A few scientists noticed this a while back and decided to look into why the island never seemed to run out of the stones."

"And what did they find?" Professor Birch questioned eagerly.

"The formation of the various Evolution Stones, at least the ones that the Eevee need, seem to involve normal rocks. The scientists back home think that, when a rock forms, depending on what species of Pokémon are around the stones during their formation, an Evolution Stone will form."

The man frowned. "Could you explain that in a bit more detail? I don't think anyone has ever really delved too much into how each of the stones that induce evolution form or where exactly some come from. Most people are more interested on how these stones affect the Pokémon and what causes such a large change in both appearance and abilities." He leaned back in his chair, his eyes sparkling in excitement as he thought of what I had just said.

I nodded in confirmation and continued. Hopefully, I won't completely butcher the explanation. "Well, there are three categories of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Take sedimentary rocks. They form through lithification, which is when water or something similar hammers particles, like sand, together to eventually form a rock. Most of the Water Stones are found in the beaches around the island where most of the Vaporeon live. There's a good chance that Water Stones are actually sedimentary rocks that have formed in proximity to the Water type…"

* * *

I honestly never thought an explanation about rocks could take so long. I had to down two water bottles to get rid of the dryness. And I'm probably going to get into another conversation or two just as lengthy. Apparently, Professor Birch wasn't the only one who was interested in talking to me, not that I was very surprised about that. Clockwork did a little too good of a job on creating the fantasy of Evolution Island. It was only natural that people would be curious.

That doesn't mean that I actually liked it. I had already resigned myself to the coming interrogations. I'm sure that there were more than a few people who were frothing at the mouth wanting to talk to me. The study on Evolution Stones wasn't the only thing we had going on. It was only the tip of the iceberg. There was only so much information you could get out of studying ancient societies and legends for a few centuries.

Oh well. It wasn't like I could do anything about it. Luckily, I didn't have to go through the entire conversation with Birch for nothing. He gave me a ticket for a ship headed to Dewford after I asked him where I should go next. There was no way I'd travel through the _same_ path I used to arrive here, especially if there was another option available.

* * *

There was a nice section of beach with calm waters not too far from the port. It was an excellent place to help Mi with expanding her move set.

I decided that she should learn some kind of Water-typed, attacking move. What was the point in being a Water type if you had no moves to help capitalize on a type advantage?

Scald was the first one to learn. She couldn't learn Water Gun or Bubble Beam for some reason. I thought those were standard moves for a Water type. Guess not.

She was a natural at it and perfected it within an hour. That proved that you couldn't judge a book by its cover. She was extremely eager to improve her battling skills so I decided to teach her Ice Beam to help alleviate her disadvantage against the Grass type.

Nodding to myself when I noticed that Mi seemed to get the hang of it quickly, now only needing to fix her control of the move, I walked over towards my other two Pokémon to check up on their progress.

I had tasked Eevee with teaching Comet both Shadow Ball and Rain Dance. Shadow Ball because why not? Rain Dance because, again, why not?

Shadow Ball took Comet about ten minutes to master after Eevee demonstrated the move. It wasn't much of a surprise to me seeing as she had a few other moves where she had to control the same energy. Rain Dance took much more time, but that was okay. She was trying her best and that was all that mattered to me.

Besides, all my Pokémon would become experts when it came to battling in the rain by the time she finished improving her speed on summoning the deluge.

Eevee was a bit different. Ash's Pikachu had Agility, which had sparked my interest. None of my current Pokémon could learn it, which sucked, but they could learn Double Team. That was what my first Pokémon was working on. Once Eevee got that down, I'll ask her to go teach Mi while I teach Comet how to go intangible and invisible at the same time. The perks of having ghost powers!

Wait.

Ash Ketchum? That name actually sounded familiar. Where had I heard that name from? I think he was from Pallet Town.

My eyes widened when I was hit by the realization. He was the kid from all those recent reports that we'd been getting!

Damn. He sure gets around. Judging by what I'd read, he had already saved the world multiple times. And he was what, thirteen?

Well, will you look at that. I've already met someone that I have something in common with!

Shaking my head at my train of thought, I observed my Eevee finally pulling off a successful Double Team. As I congratulated her, some sort of flying aircraft whizzed by, flying so close to the ground that the water rippled and sand flew into the air. I whipped my head towards it and frowned.

It was a helicopter. A dark grey, almost black-colored helicopter with the most peculiar symbol stamped onto its side. It looked like a stylized letter M. I wonder what that was about.

I shrugged the oddity off, deciding that it was probably none of my business. This wasn't Amity Park after all.

I perused through the Pokédex once again, trying to find new moves for Eevee and Mi. I'd like for them to have a few more long-ranged, elemental attacks for more versatility.

Comet would be easy in that area. She had a lot of moves of different variety that she could potentially learn. Eevee was another matter. Most of the moves that her species could learn were of the Normal type. It probably had something to do with the fact that she had seven different evolutions.

In order to deal with that, it would probably be best for her to have multiple ways to evade attacks that could seriously injure her. The same went for Mi.

* * *

"Ticket please," the official-looking man at the port said with a bored tone and dull eyes. I gave him the shiny paper, which he barely glanced at before he tore it in two and offered me one of the halves. "Your cabin is on the upper deck," he stated monotonously. "Enjoy your stay."

I nodded to him after accepting my half of the ticket and headed towards where my cabin would be. I've never been on this kind of ship before so I wanted to spend as much time as I could exploring the place.

The S.S. Tidal apparently didn't usually have a route that went to Dewford. The captain supposedly wanted to try out a new route for a change to get some different scenery, not that I minded. If he hadn't decided on the change, I probably would have had to retrace my steps. That wouldn't have been very fun.

I walked through one of the many hallways on the massive ship, marveling at how pristine and high-end everything looked. That ticket that Professor Birch gave me must have been super expensive!

I walked on, noting that this hallway seemed to be the right one. My eyes alighted on the gold, glistening numbers on the door in front of me that mirrored the ones on my ticket. I reached for the handle after scanning my torn ticket with the scanner near the door and pushed the door open.

Wow.

The cabin rivaled the room I stayed in at Vlad's stupid college reunion when it came to prestige. There was a bed that was fit for a king taking up nearly half of the room. A huge fish tank was embedded into the farthest wall with a desk, dresser, and nightstand along another. The rug sprawled on the floor felt like the softest of pillows against my bare feet.

Either Professor Birch had no idea of the kind of ticket he had given me or he was a lot more thankful of being able to have that discussion with me than I had initially thought.

* * *

I mingled amongst all the other passengers, looking for the battlefields. This ship apparently had quite a few that any Trainer could use, along with a fully-stocked Pokémon Center complete with its own Nurse Joy.

Deciding that I'd had enough of wandering around, I caught the attention of one of the employees on the ship.

"Excuse me sir?" I asked. "Where can I find the battlefields?"

The sailor smiled kindly at me and pointed in the general direction of where I assumed the battlefields were located. "You're pretty close to them. Just go down that hall and you should eventually get to them."

I thanked the man and rushed off, wanting to try out all the new moves and strategies I had come up with. There was only so much practice my Pokémon could get just battling each other.

I found that there were five, large battlefields that sat under the sun. One wasn't in use and there were a few people either observing the current battles or glancing around them, probably looking for someone to challenge.

I was about to go challenge a teenager that was glancing at the Pokéballs at his waist when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned and found myself facing a teenager, probably around Ash's age, smiling at me with challenging eyes. "Hi. Are you a Trainer?" he asked.

"Yep."

The young teen brightened at that. "Awesome! Do you want to have a battle?"

"Of course. That's what I'm here for," I replied with excitement, already making my way towards the farthest battlefield.

Once we were situated on separate sides of the field, the teen, who had introduced himself as Mikey, called out, "How does a three-on-three sound? We keep going until all three are defeated."

My grin spread even wider at the sound of that and I agreed straight away.

Wasting no more time, Mikey released a Pokémon that was obviously a Fire type since it had fire flowing from the top of its head and along its blue-colored back. I took out my Pokédex to scan it.

"Quilava, the Volcano Pokémon. Quilava keeps its foes at bay with the intensity of its flames and gusts of superheated air. This Pokémon applies its outstanding nimbleness to dodge attacks even while scorching the foe with flames."

Nodding to myself, I released Mi onto one of the small bodies of water that littered the dirt-covered field. She looked confused for a bit but understood what was happening once she laid eyes on the Quilava giving her a glare. Mi sent her own steely glare in return, not intimidated in the least.

"Alright Mi. Let's start this up with Double Team," I commanded, wanting to see how good of a battler the Fire type was. Feebas immediately started to glow white and within a second, there were multiple Feebas in the water.

"Get rid of the copies with Swift," Mikey yelled. I smirked, relishing in the fact that he had fallen into my trap. The Quilava opened its mouth and let loose the dozens of stars into the water.

What neither seemed to notice was that the Quilava had moved uncomfortably close to the edge of the water, a mistake that my Feebas exploited without any hesitation. The little fish jumped out of the water, cutting off the illusion she had created, and startled the Quilava so much that it stopped its Swift attack.

Horrified, my opponent tried to warn his Pokémon, but it was already too late.

"Confuse Ray!"

"Use Ember before that Confuse Ray hits you!"

The Quilava was too shocked to heed its Trainer's words and was helpless to Mi's ominous, purple-colored, glowing eyes. The Volcano Pokémon quickly became confused after its own eyes started to glow red.

"No! You have to snap out of it Quilava," Mikey cried in anguish.

"Use Surf," I yelled, taking full advantage of the situation. Mi heard and quickly summoned a ridiculously large wave of water, bringing it down upon the Fire type. The Quilava sputtered and struggled to get to its feet, as it was clearly on its last legs.

"Use Scald. Quickly! Don't let up until that Quilava is down!"

"Use Dig to get away. Please Quilava!" my opponent pleaded.

The Quilava started to try digging its way out, but Mi was faster. She sent the scorching hot water at her opponent, causing the poor thing to flinch in pain. It collapsed soon after, too tired to continue.

"Yes!" I yelled in triumph. I sent a smile to my second Pokémon. "You did wonderful Mi. I knew you'd do great! Do you think you could take out one more?"

My Pokémon nodded eagerly and turned her attention back to the battlefield. My opponent sighed and returned his defeated Pokémon, sending out the next one onto the field.

It was a Cacturne.

I'd seen one of those in Petalburg Forest. Let's just say I skedaddled out of there fast once I got a good look at the sharp spikes all over its arms that could easily render flesh to shreds.

The Scarecrow Pokémon regarded my Feebas with dark, ruthless eyes. Mi didn't care and, if she had fingers instead of fins, would have probably thrown a very rude gesture towards her opponent, if you know what I mean.

Mikey, who was now sporting an annoyed look, decided to start things out this time with a Sunny Day.

My eyes widened at that, already knowing what would be a sure follow-up.

"Mi," I called, concern lacing my words, "Use Rain Dance until that Sunny Day is gone. I think he wants to use Solar Beam!"

The cerulean ball of energy was sent into the air right as the Cacturne started charging the powerful Grass move. Not taking any chances, I told Mi to dive down underwater and to be prepared to dodge. I was banking on her speed in the water.

Luckily, the Cacturne hadn't thought ahead. It was too far from the edge of the water to properly aim the already-charged attack. Mikey slapped his palm to his forehead, irritated at how things were going.

"Cacturne! Get rid of the Solar Beam. Get close and hit that fish with Energy Ball," he said with a scowl. The Cacturne did just that, dissipating the powerful attack with aggravated eyes.

I decided to attack before the Energy Ball was summoned. I wasn't sure what was happening with the weather moves used earlier since it wasn't very hot anymore, but it also wasn't raining. They probably canceled out somehow.

"Use Ice Beam now!" I exclaimed. Mi shot up from her previous position with a larger-than-normal Ice Beam already formed by the time she broke the surface. The Ice Beam burst the Energy Ball that had been traveling towards her and crashed straight into the face of the Scarecrow Pokémon. It fell flat on its back, completely dazed with a layer of frost covering its green head. Mikey looked pretty shocked as well, if his gaping expression was anything to go by.

"You're doing great! Use Ice Beam agai…" Why is everything white?

When I found myself back at Clockwork's lair, the answer was obvious. I wanted to smack myself. Duh.

What had I been doing before Clockwork had forced me here?

"_Shit_."

* * *

**Hey everyone! I'm sorry about the wait.**

**Writing an outline was kind of a fail. I did start it, but I ended up trying to make it way too detailed so it started taking way too long. I'm just going to go with it, but don't worry. I know how I want this story to go.**

**I was also able to finalize Danny's team. I think I did a good job with it. I'm looking forward to when he has the entire team. **

**Anyway, about reviews… Yeah, I'm just going to reply to whatever I didn't reply to last time. I was going to just reply to reviews of the previous chapter on here and then send a PM to anyone who reviewed an earlier chapter, but that's a good way of confusing myself. I'll probably end up confusing who I already replied to and who I didn't reply to, creating a mess of things. **

**Reviews:**

**Ninuhuju (Ch. 6): Oh yes. He's **_**very **_**popular, especially among researchers and scientists. I hope this chapter helped explain why in more detail!**

**Phantomspirit12 (Ch. 6): Thanks! I've actually never had a shiny before… heh… that's kinda sad. There were a few times where I was like, "I'm going to go find this shiny!" in complete determination, and then something came up and I would forget. *shakes head* Yeah, that outline was annoying, but it did help me get organized, so something good did come out of it. Thank you for reading.**

**KaeterinaRomanov (Ch. 6): Yup. Ash is awesome. I couldn't leave him out.**

**GirlFish (Ch. 6): I'm looking forward to writing about the evolutions. Thanks for the suggestions. Nah. He might travel with them later for a bit or something, but it's not something that will be happening the whole time. Sylveon doesn't exist in this story. He'll be doing Gym battles. I can't really see him trying to make things 'pretty' as that is needed for Contests. I think a shiny Ninetales looks cool too!**

**GirlFish (Ch. 4): Absol is cool too, but I don't want to give spoilers. It's all a surprise! I don't know what you mean with Paulina. I agree that she wouldn't have many Pokémon that she'd like, but she isn't going to the Pokémon World.**

**SilverShark Fang (Ch. 4): Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.**

**SilverShark Fang (Ch. 6): Yeah. Danny isn't experienced enough to beat Ash. Danny will be in his ghost form whenever he is in the Pokémon World because that was the deal. When a ghost is allowed to become a Trainer, they look like the ghost they are. Danny is basically a human version of Phantom in the Pokémon World. He still needs to eat, sleep, and breathe when he's there. He has zero access to his powers and is essentially human. He just looks like Phantom. I guess you could think of it as him being Fenton but with white hair and green eyes? I hope that made sense. Let me know if you're still confused.**

**danifan3000 (Ch. 6): Thanks for being honest! I'm open to all sorts of critiques. I agree with what you're saying, but I'm a little afraid that if I do have them travel together, my chapters will just turn into writing what happened in the episodes with Danny thrown in there. He's new and, even though he's gotten the hang of things, will follow what they do. There are plenty of stories on this site where authors do an amazing job putting their own spin on the episodes we all love, but I don't think I'm one of them… yet. This is my first story after all. I'm also having a lot of fun coming up with Danny's own adventures. Thanks for reading, and again, thank you for being honest! I appreciate it.**

**Bibbledoo (Ch. 5): No, I'm sorry. Only one time! Thanks! My favorite Pokémon is Pikachu! I like Umbreon as well!**

**Bibbledoo (Ch. 6): I hope you like the chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

~Chapter Eight~

I booked it straight back home, not caring at all that I hadn't seen Clockwork. Luckily, none of the other ghosts that would normally attack me crossed my path, so I was able to make it back home in record time.

I looked around the basement for the clock, sighing in relief when my eyes alighted on the glaring, red numbers of 9:55. Good. I'm on time for curfew.

I flew out of the basement, double checking that I was both invisible and intangible in case I ran into my parents by accident, and ducked into the alleyway nearby. Changing quickly back to my human form, I rushed to the front door to beat the clock.

I slammed the door open and looked widely around me for the time. I released another relieved sigh when I noticed that I had made it. Stupid Clockwork. Why did he have to bring me to his lair right before curfew?

"Good job sweetie. You made it on time today," I heard my mom say as she walked back into the kitchen after noticing who had made the racket. "Just don't slam the door next time," she said over her shoulder.

I hummed my agreement and went upstairs to my room. Hopefully, I could get some homework done before I was interrupted, as usual. As I reached for the doorknob leading to my room, I let out a gasp, noting the icy-blue mist that floated in front of me. I pinched the bridge of my nose, frustrated at how often I had to do this. Do the idiots not realize I have homework!?

After giving a quick cursory glance around me in case any humans were around, I morphed back to Phantom and flew outside.

The night sky was beautiful today. Even over the growing number of lights in the city, many of the stars were clearly visible.

Deciding to quit the stargazing, I shook my head and took on a more serious attitude. Scanning my surroundings showed that there wasn't a single person, ghost or human, in sight. I flew around the area in hopes of finding the ghost soon. It would be bad if my mom went up to check on me and found that I wasn't in the house after seeing me walk in. That was just asking for trouble.

"I AM THE BOOOX GHOOOST! FEAR MY BOXES OF TERROR FOR THEY WILL RIP YOU TO SHREEEDS!"

You have got to be kidding me.

I turned around, now facing the currently cackling blue ghost who was using his telekinetic abilities to hold up a very unintimidating box above his head. Rolling my eyes, I held a finger gun up and shot a weak ghost ray at the glowing box. The cardboard flew out of the guffawing moron, completely startling him. He looked at me for a moment in complete disbelief. He apparently couldn't consider the fact that I had the audacity to hurt his precious box. Where have you been Box Ghost?

The pudgy ghost then took on a face of complete rage, eyes flashing maliciously and hands crackling with his telekinetic abilities just waiting to be used.

I merely raised an eyebrow in return, unimpressed. Really?

The Box Ghost abruptly stopped in place with his glowing hands posed above his face. He floated in the air like that for a second, shouted his signature cry of "BEWARE," and then tried to fly away from me. Key word, 'tried.'

With practiced hands, I uncapped the Fenton Thermos that had been previously resting at my waist and pointed it towards the fleeing ghost. He wailed his revenge dramatically and prolonged it as much as he could until I recapped the Thermos.

Shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the entire situation, I made a quick sweep of the town to ensure that no other problems involving ghosts would occur and returned back to my house.

Should I put the Box Ghost back in the Ghost Zone? Nah. I'll do it in the morning. There was a good chance that he'd find a way out before it was time to get up.

I poked my invisible head into the kitchen, noting that my mother seemed to not have moved away from the room since I'd last been in the Fenton home. By the smell of things, she was baking cookies, which was the only thing she _could_ cook without the family needing to fight possessed food. Dad was currently nowhere to be found, probably eating from his secret (no it's not) stash of fudge. Quickly morphing back to Fenton once I was outside of anyone's hearing/seeing range, I _finally_ made it to my room.

I collapsed onto my rolly-chair and booted up my laptop. It had my logo slapped onto the top, courtesy of Jazz, after Dad attempted to paste his face onto it. If I remembered correctly, I had to do a bit of research for an essay that was due soon. The essay itself wouldn't be too hard, but correctly sighting all my sources was going to be a pain.

* * *

"Ow," I complained, glaring at the alarm clock that had so rudely woken me up. It formed digital-looking eyes where the numbers should have been and returned my glare with an irritated (I think) look of its own, ringing even louder than earlier.

I sighed and stretched out my back after getting my disheveled self out of bed. The little clock, that I had decidedly dubbed Hourglass, gave a ring of approval and floated back to its original place on my nightstand.

Whoops. You're probably confused about why my alarm clock was now a ghost. I should explain that.

I'm sure you remember when I nearly blew it up the day I found out about the Pokémon World. Well, somehow, it had gained sentience.

It freaked me out a bit in the beginning, but once I realized that the little clock was extremely good at keeping me on schedule when it came to practically anything (it had even tried to schedule bathroom breaks), I decided to keep it, treating it as a sort-of pet. I hadn't been late to school ever since Hourglass turned up.

My parents had been another matter. They'd noticed rather quickly (about a week) that I had been on time whenever it came to my first class at school. They were proud, but also suspicious of my sudden ability to be on time to school. They decided to investigate and found the little clock that was sitting peacefully on my nightstand. I'm sure you could guess how that went.

After a full hour of screaming, shooting, and general confusion, I finally calmed them down enough to explain Hourglass.

They had been immensely skeptical at first and decided to do a power reading on it. My new pet had a 0.1 level reading on the scale, which meant that the only ghost ability that it could possess was floating.

After noticing that Hourglass did seem to resemble the alarm clock they had purchased for me and after two full weeks of them being constantly vigilant with their concealed blasters, they finally relented and let me keep it.

My mom had been rather intrigued of how Hourglass had formed, but luckily wasn't interested in dissecting the clock as that would be rather unproductive, and would go on for hours about ambient energy and whatnot. Dad was just sad that he couldn't blast any ghosts.

And no, it's not weird that they didn't try to destroy Hourglass after that very nerve-racking discussion. Ever since Jazz started going on for hours about ghost psychology and a bunch of other theories and stuff that had flown over my head at the time, Mom and Dad had lightened up ever so slightly.

And Jazz thinks that she is nothing like Mom and Dad. Pfft.

I think Jazz was actually making progress with them! I seriously hoped that she was successful with this. I was getting sick of all the lying.

* * *

"Hey guys!" I greeted my friends with a smile, shifting my backpack to a more comfortable position.

"Hey dude!" Tucker said while walking over to my locker. Sam wasn't far behind.

"Any ghost problems?" Sam asked, glancing towards the more popular and rather loud group nearby with irritation.

"Just the Box Ghost. I even had time to finish most of that essay that Lancer gave us," I answered happily.

Tucker's jaw dropped as he looked up from the screen of his PDA. "Are you serious man? I haven't even started that stupid thing," he pouted.

Sam rolled her eyes and hit Tucker on the back of his head, causing the bespectacled teen to cry out in pain dramatically. "That's because all you've been doing is playing that new edition of _Doomed_. Of course you're not going to get anything done!" Sam deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes at their antics and closed my locker. We all heard the bell ring.

"Come on guys. Let's get to class. I don't wanna get detention," I told my friends while starting to make my way to our first class. Sam and Tucker quickly followed behind, falling in step with me.

"So," Sam started with a knowing expression resting on her face, "you went to that Pokémon place right? What was it like?" Tucker looked away from his PDA once again to hear what I had to say of the place.

I think my huge smile on my face gave a good indication of what that place was like.

"It was incredible," I exclaimed with glee. "I've already caught two other Pokémon and they're the best. My starter is great as well. You guys would love it there! Tucker, they have so much advanced technology! The Pokémon can stay in super small Pokéballs. You have no idea how high-tech those things are! And Sam, I'm sure you'd love the wildlife there. Their entire society is built on the Pokémon themselves. It's amazing…"

I kept gushing about everything I had experienced so far. My two best friends listened attentively, practically drinking in every word I said about the dimension up until we were at the door of Mr. Lancer's class. I shut up immediately right before I reached the door, not wanting anyone to hear about the place. That would be bad.

* * *

"Get back here ghost BRAT!" Skulker screamed in rage while I flew away with his dismembered arm, laughing at his face even though he had a rather intimidating, glowing knife protruding out of his still-attached arm.

"Oh please," I smirked, smiling smugly over my shoulder and waving his arm everywhere with sparks flying off. "Why would I do that?"

Skulker's eyes bulged out of his sockets (don't know how) as he continued to scream profanities. A large bazooka appeared out of the ghost's shoulder, shooting dozens of green-colored fireballs. I swiftly dodged around each one, looping expertly around some while batting the rest away with Skulker's arm and damaging the piece of technology even more.

"Now, now Skulker," I tutted, "don't you know it's not nice to say certain blasphemous words around children. I know I'm awesome, but I'm technically not an adult yet." I shook my head disapprovingly at the enraged ghost and used the mechanical arm as a pointer to emphasize my point. It creaked and groaned rather ominously if I do say so myself. "You should be ashamed of yourself," I finished, trying really hard not to laugh.

Skulker obviously couldn't take my sass anymore and decided to forego our very nice discussion by charging stupidly with his blade outstretched. I smirked again, already knowing that that had been coming. After quickly discarding his now-useless arm, I charged forward as well, smiling wickedly when I noticed the brief surprise cross the robot's face (again, don't know how).

I maneuvered my way inside Skulker's guard, using his surprise to my advantage, and grabbed onto his unoccupied shoulder (the other still had the bazooka). Using his shoulder the same way a gymnast would use a balance bar, I flipped head-over-heels over him, and ended up behind the hunter. The confused ghost hadn't turned around yet since he was still completely astonished, so at the end of my roll, I planted my feet on his back and kicked off.

Completely thrown by the sudden force, Skulker ended up face-planting straight into the ground. Sam and Tucker, who had both been observing the fight with slight boredom, ran over and quickly sucked Skulker into a Fenton Thermos, making sure to collect the unwanted arm as well.

I floated down towards the ground, landing softly on a part of the street that hadn't been wrecked by Skulker's face. I frowned. I needed to pay more attention to the damage I did. I should have been able to avoid any damage occurring to Amity Park in that fight, especially since Skulker wasn't all that imposing anymore.

"Great job, dude!" Tucker said with a grin. "Skulker seriously needs to up his game. The ghost fights with him are getting kinda lame."

I glared at him. "Don't jinx it! The next ghost I fight is probably gonna be a powerhouse now that you said that!"

"Yeah well," Sam deadpanned, "you know how this idiot is. He doesn't think and is pretty good at stuffing his foot into his mouth."

Tucker cried his outrage at the insinuation while I snorted at the insult. Somehow, their disagreement turned into a war between vegetables and meat.

Deciding to save myself from the headache I knew I was going to get, I called it a night. "Sorry guys, but I gotta go. Skulker will hopefully have been the last one. See ya," I said as I started floating and forming my ghost tail.

Both teens miraculously stopped fighting and turned to me with smiles on their faces. "Sure thing," Tucker said. "You wanna hang at the Nasty Burger? They have some new special I want to try out," the bespectacled boy said, licking his lips in savory delight.

"Sure," I exclaimed, glad that their bickering hadn't escalated into something more. I didn't think Casper High could handle another day of rivaling protests. I knew I couldn't.

I turned to Sam for her opinion and she nodded her agreement.

"Great," I exclaimed, floating even higher. "Bye guys."

I flew towards my house while my two best friends headed to theirs. It only took a few minutes to get to my room after making sure that Mom and Dad were still asleep. I changed quickly into some comfortable clothes after I morphed back to Fenton.

"Goodnight Hourglass," I said, smiling at the little clock when it rang its answer. I dropped onto my bed, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

* * *

I felt my mouth forming the end of a word. I couldn't tell what I was saying as my mind was still a bit foggy on the details.

My hearing returned to me first, allowing me to listen to the tell-tale signs of something smashing into something else, with a faint tinkling easily heard after the crash. I felt the breeze around me and could smell the salt in the air, cuing my understanding of what was going on.

My vision finally cleared and I was able to see a sight that I hadn't really been expecting.

The Cacturne was frozen solid. Its entire body lay flat on its back, completely attached to the ground by all the ice.

Oh sure. I knew freezing the opponent was a likely possibility when it came to some of the Ice-typed moves, but that didn't mean that I was honestly expecting it to happen during Mi's first true battle.

"Come on Cacturne!" Mikey pleaded. "Please snap out of it. If you can hear me, break the ice with Brick Break."

The silence echoed across the battlefield. I wasn't sure how long the wait was going to go, but if something didn't happen soon, then I'll tell Mikey to recall the poor thing. That couldn't be comfortable at all.

I watched as Mikey sighed and started to reach for a Pokéball, about to return his frozen Pokémon, but halted in his movement completely when an audible crack sounded on the battlefield.

Both us Trainers and one Pokémon looked on in disbelief as the Cacturne's arm started to glow white. The Cacturne remained in its frozen state for another moment, where hairline cracks started to inch their way across the ice. Then, beams of lights shot out of the many flaws on the frozen water, followed quickly by the shattering of the ice.

I shielded my eyes away from the explosion and felt many tiny ice particles hit my body. When I looked back towards the battle a second later, I found the previously-frozen Scarecrow Pokémon staring at my Feebas with hate-filled eyes.

Mi stared at the heaving Pokémon with surprise before shaking her head and focusing on the battle again. I gave an impressed look towards the Cacturne before returning my own focus on what my next command should be.

Mikey had snapped out of his shocked reverie before I had and was already capitalizing on his brief bout of luck.

"Awesome Cacturne," he said with a grin. "Use Sandstorm and then hit that fish with Energy Ball!"

My eyes widened at the sight of the sand tornado that formed out of nowhere, easily concealing the Cacturne. I could manage to see a dark silhouette deep inside the veil of sand, but that didn't make me feel any better.

"Mi," I called in panic, "use Rain Dance to get rid of the sand. Then use Double Team." Mi understood quickly and did as told right away. Her Double Team had already been completed before the rain even started, confusing her injured opponent when it tried to aim after getting closer to the water and readying the attack.

The battle between the rain and sand raged for a few seconds before the rain, having a lot more momentum with the help of gravity, brought down more and more of the sand to the ground with each drop. Unfortunately, the rain was coming down hard enough to dispel Mi's copies. The Cacturne immediately zeroed in on her stationary form and released the Energy Ball.

Luckily, I didn't have to say anything. As soon as the rain took control of the battlefield, Mi's Swift Swim kicked in, upping her speed tremendously and allowing her to easily dodge the attack.

I smirked at the Cacturne's admittedly astonished-looking expression and Mikey's gaping form before I decided to finish the battle with one last Ice Beam.

Mi complied, zooming out of the water quickly from the farthest side of the water with the Ice Beam completely charged. While moving forward…somehow, she let the attack loose at her still-stunned opponent. The Ice Beam gained in power and size as it collected the droplets on its path and barreled straight into the unprepared Pokémon. As the Scarecrow Pokémon started its path to the floor, Mi _flew_ through the air, tackled the falling Pokémon, and landed in another body of water.

I gaped at her, not caring at all that the Cacturne had been defeated. I watched as Mi popped back to the surface of the water with a confused expression adorned on her face.

"Did you just… fly?" I wondered, completely befuddled by what I had just seen. Mi looked pretty confused herself.

I was brought back out of my reverie when I saw a red light in the corner of my eye, signifying the return of the Cacturne. Oh right, battle. I'll focus on an explanation for that later.

"Hey Mi," I said, hiding my amazement about her seemingly impossible feat. "How about we let Comet have a try? You battled so well! I'm proud of you."

My second Pokémon looked disheartened at first, but quickly forgot her sadness and preened at the praise. I smiled at her and returned her, bringing out Comet into the lessening rain.

Comet, just like Mi, was initially confused about what was happening, but quickly focused when she saw a Pokémon materializing out of the white energy in front of her.

Mikey's last choice coalesced into a yellow, humanoid Pokémon with a tail. I scanned it with my Pokédex. Judging by the electricity traveling across its fur and the lightning bolt-shaped, black fur on its abdomen, it was an Electric type. Great.

"Electabuzz, the Electric Pokémon. When a storm arrives, gangs of this Pokémon compete with each other to scale heights that are likely to be stricken by lightning bolts. Some towns use Electabuzz in place of lightning rods."

I paled a little after hearing that explanation, but was also excited for the challenge. If this species of Pokémon competed to get hit by lightning, then it had to be tough.

"Electabuzz," Mikey called, "use Thunder Wave."

"Go Ghost Comet! That could paralyze you!" I yelled.

As the Electric Pokémon prepared its attack, Comet faded from the visible spectrum, turning intangible simultaneously like I had taught her. The Electabuzz stopped, puzzled as to where Comet had gone.

"It's invisible," Mikey explained to his Pokémon. "Use Shock Wave."

The bipedal Electric type nodded and easily built up the attack. I winced, not sure how well Comet's intangibility would hold up against an elemental attack. Physical attacks were the easy ones.

Oh duh. This was an easy fix.

"Phase into the ground!" I commanded, hoping that she would be fast enough. As the Shock Wave traveled across the field, no cry of pain could be heard so I assumed that the dodge was a success. "Use Will-O-Wisp and follow it up with Screech. Then Hex!"

"Shock Wave again," Mikey yelled with fear in his eyes. The Electabuzz released a swift burst of electricity that spread everywhere and, after hearing a yelp of surprise, obviously hit my Pokémon. Comet appeared near the Electric type with sparks traveling along her form. Fortunately, she was able to manage a Will-O-Wisp through her pain before Mikey gave another command.

The Electabuzz was hit with the blue fireballs from Comet's Will-O-Wisp, badly burning the Electric type and giving Comet a chance to recover before she unleashed her Screech attack.

That completely disoriented the bipedal Pokémon, also succeeding in drowning out what Mikey's next command had been. The Hex attack that I had ordered came soon after in the form of my Shuppet's now-glowing, purplish-red eyes. The muddled Electabuzz gave off an erratic Thunder which Comet easily dodged, giving her the opening to hit her opponent with the Hex attack.

The Electabuzz ended up outlined in the same glow that had taken over the ghost's eyes, made even more powerful than usual because of its burn. The yellow Pokémon gave off a terrible cry of pain, its intensity rivaling Comet's Screech attack. I winced at the loudness.

"Electabuzz!" Mikey screamed in anguish. "You need to get away from there! Use Thunderbolt!"

"Use Shadow Sneak! Stay away from all its Electric attacks!" I yelled.

The Thunderbolt zoomed through the air as my Shuppet unleashed her shadow. Just like Eevee in her battle against Ash's Pikachu, Comet was still hit by some of the electricity when she tried to dodge. Dammit. There had to be a way to dodge these kinds of moves!

She got her bearings quickly and finished the Shadow Sneak, hurting the feline badly from behind. Both Pokémon slumped slightly after the attacks had been completed, finally showing their fatigue. This needed to be finished now before Comet was hurt even more.

"Shadow Ball!" I said, wanting this to be done and over with. Comet needed medical attention. Those burns from the electricity didn't look so good.

Mikey wanted another Thunder, but that wasn't going to happen. The Electabuzz started to charge up again, but the Shadow Ball hit it before the attack was even halfway ready.

I sighed in relief when I saw the Electric type slump to the ground in defeat. I really needed to find better ways to get around those speedy, Electric-typed moves. The competition would only get tougher.

My Shuppet floated slowly to the ground, her head-spike drooping. I ran to her and patted her head as she looked up.

"You did amazing Comet," I told the ghost with a smile. "Electric types are pretty hard to deal with and you were able to beat that Electabuzz! They're supposed to be really tough."

She smiled tiredly at me as I returned her. I clipped the Pokéball back to my waist and looked up when I heard footsteps.

"Hey," Mikey said while running his hand through his hair. His other hand had some cash held tightly. "Thanks for the battle. I learned a ton. You really have a knack with bringing the best out of your team. I know I still have a lot to learn."

"Thanks," I told him sincerely while taking the money. "I learned a lot from the battle too."

We both made some small talk as we headed to the Pokémon Center on the ship. All three of Mikey's Pokémon needed some recovery time. I think I just needed to have Comet go there, but it wouldn't hurt to give Mi a quick look over, just in case.

* * *

I walked through one of the areas of the ship that had many booths lined along it. Most of the stuff they were selling seemed kinda useless, so I quickly grew bored of the place.

I was still a little embarrassed about the whole 'my Feebas can fly' conversation I recently had with the Nurse Joy on the ship. It was very hard to hide my blush when the giggling nurse patiently explained how it was a normal thing that happened when it came to an out-of-water Pokémon with Swift Swim when it was raining.

The loud crowd that was flocking around a booth nearby caught my attention. I looked over towards what everyone seemed so hyped up about and was immediately annoyed by it. Another useless thing.

It was one of those dress-up booths for Pokémon. It was supposed to make them look pretty or something, but it really just made the Pokémon look grotesque and… weird. Whatever. It wasn't my problem.

I walked around the mass of people and continued on to see what other things were around here. There had to be something interesting.

My eyes were quickly drawn to a pretty lady manning a booth nearby with a sad expression. There was some kind of red, vulpine Pokémon sprawled lazily near the edge of the table. It looked like she was selling some kind of beauty product for Pokémon (not that I knew much about that stuff). That six-tailed whatever it is looked well taken care of, so maybe she knew what she was doing. Since my team consisted of all girls at the moment, I didn't think it would hurt to take a quick look.

But first, let's see what the Pokédex has to say about that fox.

"Vulpix, the Fox Pokémon. At the time of its birth, Vulpix has one white tail. The tail separates into six if this Pokémon receives plenty of love from its Trainer. The six tails become magnificently curled."

Okay, she definitely seems to know what she's doing.

"Hi," I said after walking up to the booth.

The lady's eyes immediately lit up. "Hello there young man," she said kindly. "Are you interested in any of our products?"

I looked at some of the shampoo-looking stuff and answered, "I was just looking around and noticed that your Vulpix looked really healthy. Did your stuff do that?"

She smiled widely and explained, "It's part of the reason. We believe that a healthy combination of inner and outer beauty really brings out the best of a Pokémon. By making sure that a Pokémon is receiving the correct nutrition along with a few other things," she gestured towards the relaxed Vulpix, "a Pokémon will look their best all the time. A strong bond between Pokémon and Trainer is important too…"

She continued explaining her methods for a few more minutes before she demonstrated one of her products on the Vulpix.

"First get a good amount of the moisturizer," she squeezed some of the creamy-white blobby stuff onto her hand, "and rub it a bit on your hands. Then start massaging your Pokémon like this."

She continued demonstrating and even tried the stuff on Eevee. Her coat immediately looked even healthier and I could tell by the look on her face that she had enjoyed it. After finding out a bit more about the product and how good this lady, who introduced herself as Suzy, really was (she'd won a ton of awards), I thought I'd give it a try.

They were a little expensive, but I think they were worth it. I got one kind specifically for Eevee and one for my Feebas. Each product was developed according to type and whether the Pokémon had scales, fur, etc. The Ghost type products were still in development, but it wouldn't hurt to give Comet one of those massages. My team would probably like that, with or without the products.

She complimented the bond I had with my Pokémon and reminded me that the products were nothing without that bond. After she gave me a few lists on nutrition and whatnot for each of my Pokémon, I thanked her and left, making sure I got her contact info in case my Pokémon really enjoyed the products. It looked like I had something to do now after all.

With one more annoyed glance towards the flashy stand that I had passed earlier, I headed back to my room.

* * *

**Thanks for all the support!**

**Please review! I really want to hear what you all have to say about the battles especially. Many of the battles in the future will get longer and more complex as Danny's team gains more experience. Can you all follow the battles that I have written so far? Are Danny's Pokémon too overpowered? Anything that seems strange, please let me know! I really want to improve the quality of the future chapters!**

**Also, everything has already occurred except "Phantom Planet" in this story.**

**Reviews:**

**Bibbledoo (Ch. 7): Thanks! I tend to like the ghosts of anything because of DP as well. **

**Ninuhuju (Ch. 7): Yup. That kind of thing will tend to not have very good timing. **

**HowlingPassion (Ch. 6): Thanks. I'm glad you think so.**

**GirlFish (Ch. 7): Yeah. Danny is the kind of person to do that. Danny doesn't have his powers in the Pokémon World. I'm still debating on whether Ash will get to go there or not. There won't be a sequel for this story. I don't know yet. There's a lot I could do with that.**

**KaeterinaRomanov (Ch. 7): He's going to travel with Ash and the others for a bit, but beyond that I'm not sure. I'm leaning on just having Danny on his own the rest of the time, but I haven't completely decided on that yet.**


	9. Chapter 9

~Chapter Nine~

"Okay Mi. I'm going to put this cream on you that I bought earlier. It's supposed to bring out your inner beauty. Eevee already had some rubbed into her fur," I gestured towards the sleeping mass of fur sprawled comfortably on the bed, "and her fur is all shiny now."

The Feebas, who was resting on a small tray filled with water that I found in the bathroom, looked towards the relaxed Pokémon and quickly noticed the shiny and healthy sheen that Eevee's fur had. She then looked back towards the bottle in my hands with interest.

I took that as a cue to put the stuff on her scales. Her brown-colored scales were rough to the touch, but felt very durable.

After a few moments, I stood back to admire my work. The little fish's scales seemed to shine from within, as if she was literally glowing. Her scales had already been well taken care of, I had made sure of that, and looked great if one looked close enough. Now, the brown scales had a richer tone to it, while the blue ones had taken on the same nature as shallow waters under the sun.

What was nice about this product was that it didn't make any Pokémon look fake; it was like the cream just made what was already there much more prominent. I made sure that all of my Pokémon understood that, since it was exactly what the product did, according to Suzy. The cream was used to compliment a healthy diet and strong bond between Trainer and Pokémon, giving the Pokémon a radiant look.

I didn't want them to start thinking that they needed the cream to look nice. That would defeat the purpose of the product.

"Alright," I said as I cleaned off the excess onto a towel and grabbed a portable mirror (No, I don't carry one around. It was in the bathroom.) and placed it in front of the Water type. She looked at herself in awe, obviously not believing that what she was seeing hadn't already been there.

I smiled at the gaping fish and turned to explain to my Shuppet why I didn't have one for her yet. She pouted a bit but understood.

Satisfied, I returned all of them to their Pokéballs and left to the dining hall.

* * *

This food was absolutely delicious!

I scarfed down the food, licking my lips in delight. There were hundreds of people in the area, all savoring the mouth-watering food, with some engaged in deep discussions.

I went for another bite, but stopped when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and was greeted by a guy, probably in his thirties, with graying, long hair and a kind smile adorned on his face.

"Hello there," he said. "You don't mind if I join you, do you? It's pretty crowded and there aren't many places to sit."

I blinked, surprised at the request. I was sitting near the corner of the room on my own, at a table that could seat at least five people. Deciding that it wasn't a problem, I told him that I wouldn't mind.

"Thank you," the man said as he sat down. "I'm Spencer by the way."

"I'm Danny. Are you some kind of researcher?" I asked, noting the card pinned to his shirt.

Spencer nodded. "I actually wanted to ask you about that. There are quite a few researchers on this ship. I noticed that you were actually in the same hall as us and that Professor Birch, who was supposed to be here, isn't around."

"Professor Birch gave me his ticket after I answered a few questions that he had," I answered, already figuring out his unasked question. "I think he also had a few other things that he needed to get done in Littleroot."

"Really?" Spencer asked, interested. "What were you talking about, if I may ask?"

"Just some habitats," I explained casually, grabbing another bite from my food.

The man snorted, smiling slightly at that. "I see why he gave you that ticket. He really loves his work."

I nodded absently and asked, "What do you research? Are all of you going to some big research thing?"

He chuckled. "No. We're just comparing notes on a few of the Legendary Pokémon." I paid a lot more attention when I heard that. "It was one of the others idea to have a meeting on a ship." Spencer rolled his eyes. "I personally think it was unnecessary, but my daughter encouraged me to go. So here I am," he finished fondly.

"Which of the Legendaries do you do research on?" I asked in curiosity. Maybe I could help him with some of it.

The man's eyes lit up with childish delight. "I've recently started looking into the Hoenn legends. I've been rather fascinated with Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza recently. I don't know if you have heard of them. They are known as the…"

"Weather Trio," I finished with a grin. I watched in amusement as Spencer looked at me with brief astonishment before his expression morphed into a grin of his own.

"So you do know of them. Did you grow up in Hoenn? I'd love to hear what a local would know of the three legends."

"No," I answered sheepishly, "I'm from Evolution Island."

He looked astonished once again. His eyes sharpened after he got over it and asked, "You're Danny Phantom aren't you?"

I blinked in surprise, not really expecting him to know. He must be a top researcher or something for him to know that. "Yeah, I am. I didn't think you'd know about that."

He chuckled once again. "You'd be surprised to how many people actually know of the place…"

We continued chatting about the various legends surrounding the Weather Trio, also touching upon a few other legendary trios that existed in the various regions since neither of us had to hold back on sensitive information. I was a little wary about some of the things I said. We were in a public area after all and I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea if any of this information became widely known. Spencer seemed to have gone into his own little world and completely disregarded the fact that anybody could be listening to the present conversation.

"Have you heard of the Red and Blue Orbs?" I heard the man ask eagerly. My head snapped up when I registered what he had asked. He took my reaction as a good sign and continued. "A couple archeologists found some drawings that showed the two objects not too long ago. It looked like the Orbs had some sort of significance to Kyogre and Groudon at least. Unfortunately, the text that was written alongside the drawings was too archaic and faded for anyone to make sense of it. We could still speculate, unless of course your people have some information on…"

_**CRASH!**_

Both of our heads swiveled towards the waitress who had just dropped a plate. She looked at us apologetically and cleaned up what she had broken, moving away from our table as soon as she could.

The instant she was out of my range of sight, I relaxed, but decided to cut the conversation short. The direction this discussion had taken was making me uncomfortable. The idea behind the Orbs had reminded me of the time Freakshow had taken control of my mind. I didn't want to let what the Orbs could really do become public knowledge either.

I stood up and sent an apologetic look towards the man. I may not have liked the direction the chat had taken, but I had enjoyed talking to the friendly man. "I'm sorry sir, but I just realized that I haven't fed my Pokémon yet. I should probably get that done. I enjoyed talking about the legends of this region with you," I explained.

Spencer waved dismissively and gave a smile. "Don't worry about it. We did have quite a long discussion. I enjoyed speaking with you. There aren't too many ten-year-olds around that I could have such an informative conversation with. Thank you," he voiced with a laugh.

I grinned and left, heading to my room. It had gotten rather late. Since most people were either still eating or already in their rooms, hardly anyone was around, which made it easy to get back to my room in a few minutes. I rummaged through my pockets for the ticket, grinning in delight when I grasped it. Unlocking the door, I walked in.

Immediately, I felt I chill crawl up my spine, putting me on high alert. Without even realizing what I was doing, I tucked my chin and rolled forward, ducking under the punch that would have knocked me unconscious. As I completed the roll and ended up in a fighting stance with my back facing the farthest wall, I heard someone curse in a feminine voice.

When my eyes settled on who my assailant was, I grimaced. It was the same lady that dropped that plate! I knew we shouldn't have talked about that stuff in public!

Instead of casual clothes with an apron tied around her, the redhead was now sporting a blue bandana with a familiar symbol etched onto the fabric along with a mostly blue outfit that exposed her midriff. Her ruby-red eyes sparkled with malice and her mouth was shaped into a nasty smirk.

"So you have some fight in you. I'll admit I didn't expect a little brat like you to be able to do that. And here I thought I was getting the boring job," she crooned darkly. Her eyes seemed to harden when she noted my fighting stance.

I shifted to a more defensive stance, not use to facing a human like this. Ghost hunters were one thing, but I had no idea what to expect from this girl. Apprehension started to cloud my thoughts when I remembered that my ghost powers wouldn't be of any use.

I narrowed my eyes in concentration when I noticed the knowing leer that adorned her face. She wasn't making any sort of effort to attack and there wasn't anyone else around according to my brief scan of the room during the dodge.

My eyes widened when I got an answer to my questioning thoughts in the form of all my joints freezing in place as electricity traveled through my body. My legs, no longer able to support me, buckled and I fell back on my butt, managing to stay upright with the little control I had of my body. I briefly heard something snap open in my dazed state. When my eyes cleared I saw both Eevee and Comet standing (floating in Comet's case) in defiance, positioning themselves between the blue-clothed lady and the similarly-colored Pokémon with antennae-shaped appendages protruding from the back of its body. The stupid thing that I knew sent what was probably a Thunder Wave had rolled out from under the bed.

The lady laughed uproariously when she saw my Pokémon trying to protect me. "Oh please," she scoffed. "Chinchou, use Thunderbolt. Get rid of these pipsqueaks."

As the Chinchou charged its attack, Eevee let loose a guttural growl of rage, darting forward to intercept the attack. Comet faded from the visible spectrum, her vindictiveness seeping into the air and darkening the atmosphere in the room.

The Chinchou released the Thunderbolt straight at my charging Eevee. Luckily, the Evolution Pokémon was prepared and sprung up a Protect right before the Electric-typed attack was upon her. The electricity ricocheted off the dome and hit various areas of the room, leaving burn marks wherever they hit.

I watched in awe as a Shadow Ball from the still-invisible Comet zoomed forward and hit the Chinchou. The blue Pokémon cried out as it was thrown backwards and slammed into the now-closed door, jostling it and hopefully alerting someone outside.

Both of my enraged Pokémon (Comet seemed too irate to focus on remaining out of eyesight) turned towards the woman, fully intending to beat her into the ground. She just smirked at them, not caring that two bloodthirsty Pokémon were eyeing her with barely concealed fury.

And I knew why.

The Chinchou wasn't the only Pokémon that had been hiding under the bed.

She wagged her finger in disapproval, her cruel eyes shining in delight. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she sung with malice. "Your Trainer will have a very hard time keeping his head if you continue your pitiful attack."

Both of my friends stiffened the moment they heard that, eyes now filled with worry. They became horrified when they turned around and saw the predicament I was in.

The moment they had forced themselves out of their Pokéballs, I had heard a hissing noise reach me, followed by a strange sizzling. Before I could even wonder what that had been, I felt something coil itself around me, binding my immobile arms to my torso and then wrapping around my face, preventing me from crying out as it's scaled body covered my mouth. If it was possible, I would have gaped openly at the blade-like tail that was held against my throat, glowing with purple poison just wanting to eat away at my skin. I gulped as I eyed the poison, hoping that the snakelike (What else could it be?) Pokémon wouldn't actually swing its natural weapon at me.

My Pokémon remained immobile while the redhead cackled in triumph. I paled, not wanting to know what this lady wanted. She sounded crazy.

She sauntered past my motionless Pokémon and stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "Alright brat," she sneered. "Return your Pokémon. I know you have enough control of your hands to do so and Seviper isn't binding them. Now," she cupped my chin, forcing me to look at her directly in the eyes, "if you even _think_ about trying something funny, I'll make sure your adorable little face is no longer intact by the time I'm through with you. Understand?"

I couldn't exactly nod, but she took my wide-eyed stare as a yes and watched both my Pokémon and myself as I slowly returned them. They looked pained while I did so, completely devastated that they couldn't protect me.

As she removed my Pokéballs and placed them in some kind of tray that prevented the Pokémon from forcing the Pokéballs open, a resounding knock was easily heard on my door.

"Danny?" I heard Spencer call and I quickly grew even more horrified. No no no! "Are you alright? I heard a bang."

I noticed my attacker's smile had grown in size and deviousness when she heard who was at the door. Crap!

I tried to warn him to leave, but all I could manage were a few muffled sounds before I gave up. The Seviper, whose head seemed to be right behind mine since I could clearly make out blood-colored fangs in my peripheral vision, hissed and held its toxic, sharpened tail closer to my exposed neck. It pulled my head a little higher to make more room for the freakish appendage. Now I was starting to seriously panic. Sweat was pouring down my face and it was getting harder to breathe as my terror grew. Though, the breathing problem might be from how the snake thing was squeezing my torso to keep me quiet and also continued to keep my mouth covered.

This thing seemed like the perfect killing machine!

I watched in fearful anxiety as the unnamed lady nodded towards her recovered Chinchou and then proceeded to hide near the door.

The Chinchou sent a weak shock towards the doorknob. A second later, I heard a yelp and a curse. This was really bad!

"Danny! Are you alright? I'm coming in," he yelled in worry. I heard him turn the knob, easily opening the door since the scanner didn't work anymore after getting hit with the shock.

I couldn't even attempt to do anything!

As soon as he opened the door, I knew that he was going to be just as stuck as me.

He saw me as soon as he entered, eyes growing wide in shock and face turning pale as he grasped the state I was in. I didn't blame him for his reaction. I doubt many people saw someone bound and gagged by a Pokémon in this manner, along with a knife in the form of said Pokémon's tail.

"D-danny?" he whispered shakily, obviously not knowing what to do as he stared at the poisonous blade that was not even an inch away from my throat. I could barely breathe with how tight the Seviper was holding me.

This time, I tried to warn him with my eyes, looking back and forth between him and the woman, but he was too wrapped up in his horror to do anything but stare. He, unfortunately, had stepped into the room far enough for the blue-clothed criminal to slam the door shut behind him, making him jump at least a foot high and trapping him in here.

He pivoted around and found the former waitress leaning against the closed door. She stared at him with calculative eyes and a malevolent smile.

"Why hello there Mr. Hale," she remarked with a dark smirk. "Glad you could join the party."

* * *

**Isn't Seviper the perfect Pokémon for a hostage situation?**

**Anyway, I'm going to make the criminals in the Pokémon World much more menacing than they are originally portrayed. I'll also be including certain elements from the games in this story. **

**I tried to create a situation that Danny wouldn't know what to do in. Do his reactions make sense?**

**Reviews:**

**GirlFish (Ch. 8): Thanks. I'll try to include all of that.**

**Kimera20 (Ch. 8): Thank you. **

**Phantomspirit12 (Ch. 8): Thanks for letting me know. I'll work on that. I'm glad you liked Hourglass!**

**Zane Tribal Tyne Alexandros (Ch. 3): Hmmm… I don't know. They don't really play a major role here. Maybe in a ghost fight or something.**

**Ninuhuju (Ch. 8): Yeah. A ribbon or something similar is the only thing that really makes sense.**

**Owldusk (Ch. 8): Danny will travel with Ash later. Right now, they're traveling in opposite directions. Ash goes from Littleroot to Oldale, Petalburg, and Rustboro before he reaches Dewford. There's a lot that happens in between those places as well. Danny, on the other hand, spent a little time training and is now heading to Dewford. They'll travel together when they're heading in a similar direction. **


	10. Chapter 10

~Chapter Ten~

"You know," the redhead remarked, staring at Spencer with some amusement, "you made things much easier by coming in here." She sent a dark grin towards the paling man. "I don't have to ambush you in your own room at least. That saves some time."

Spencer balled up his fists in rage, forgetting his previous fear. "How could you do this to a child?" he spat, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. "Leave Danny alone. I'll do what you want, just let him go."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," she drawled. "I couldn't help but hear a good portion of your little chat earlier. Now tell me, why would someone like you be sharing such information with a ten-year-old?" She smirked when she took note of Spencer's dawning realization and self-loathing. "Unless, of course, this boy has some sort of significance to you or the people you work with."

I blanched, having no idea what to do now. If she found out why I was allowed to know all that stuff… well, it wouldn't end well.

"Look," Spencer said, having calmed himself somewhat from his previous thoughts, "Danny is just a friend of one of my colleagues. He doesn't know anything." His eyes sharpened in determination. "I know you're a member of Team Aqua. I'll tell you what you want, just let the boy go."

Team Aqua? Great. I'm in the middle of some crazy, evil organization's scheme.

The blue-clothed criminal shrugged indifferently. "No can do. Archie is rather curious about why this boy seems to know so much about the Legendaries, and to be honest," she sent me a shark-like grin, "so am I. He's not going anywhere anytime soon."

I looked helplessly towards the tray with my Pokéballs, trying to come up with a way out of this. I really didn't want to be anywhere near this lady.

Looking back towards the woman, I watched as she tied up a distraught Spencer while taking away his Pokéballs and seated him on the other side of the room, making sure to keep us separate.

"Now," she announced airily, "tell me everything you know of the whereabouts of the Red and Blue Orbs. If you don't, then the brat dies."

I tried to reel backwards when the obsidian-scaled snake forced its tail to glow darker with a more potent poison, somehow holding the blade closer to my throat, its coils curling so tight around me that I was probably turning blue from the lack of air. Shit!

"Please," I faintly heard Spencer beg, "I don't think Danny can breathe. Let him go!"

The woman whirled around, bearing a look of surprise. Her expression immediately turned annoyed. "Seviper, let his face go, but keep a good grip on him. We don't need him dying from lack of air, now do we?"

The stupid snake hissed its displeasure, but acquiesced. I greedily sucked in air, panting in relief that I could breathe after the Seviper partly uncoiled itself.

"Now," the blue-clothed criminal sneered, "where are those pretty orbs? Or do I need to be more persuasive?"

Spencer inhaled deeply, his expression pained. "I don't know where those orbs are okay? None of us do! We only theorized the existence of the Red and Blue Orbs based on a very old journal entry that one of my colleagues found here in Hoenn along with a few drawings," Spencer said calmly. I had to hand it to him. At least he was keeping it together instead of having a complete meltdown.

"Oh please," the woman scoffed. "Do you take me for a fool?! I know that you sleazy researchers know more than that." The redhead sauntered closer to me and kneeled next to my immobile form. She grabbed a fistful of my hair (why do they always grab the hair?) and jerked my head up. "Now are you going to answer my question or is little Danny over here going to lose his head?"

"No!" Spencer yelled as my eyes widened. "Leave him alone! I don't know where the damn things are. I'm more interested in the stories behind the Legendaries than those orbs. Please," Spencer pleaded, "believe me. I've told you all I know."

I'd say something (what I would say I don't really know), but I was having a bit of a breathing problem at the moment, even with my mouth uncovered. My head being yanked around by a clearly psychotic woman wasn't really helping matters much.

"Well that's too bad then," she crooned, standing up. "I suppose you're of no use to me, but Danny," she patted my head, "will have the opportunity to meet my boss."

"What!?" Spencer snarled. "You've got to be kidding me. He's just a kid and doesn't know anything! LET HIM GO!"

"Perhaps," the redhead remarked, "but we just want to be sure. Who knows," she sent me a knowing grin, "we may make a new recruit out of him." She kneeled in front of me, cupping my chin once again. "Tell me Danny. How long have you been a Trainer? A few weeks? Maybe a month? And you have both an Eevee and a Shuppet that are well trained. Not to mention that Feebas that took out both a Cacturne and a Quilava." My eyes grew horrified when I realized what that meant.

"That's right Danny," the Team Aqua member spoke with a superior smirk. "We were already keeping an eye on you after we saw that battle." She sent a dark grin towards a paling Spencer. "That chat I overheard between you and this researcher here was just a plus."

I threw an infuriated look towards her, having had enough of this entire ordeal, and did the only thing I could.

I bit her.

She yelped, moving her hand away and holding it against her chest. She sent me a scathing look, a look that I gladly returned, not caring that the Seviper was hissing its displeasure into my ear.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I rasped. If only I had caught my breath! I would have sounded a lot more convincing if I could breathe.

"You don't have a choice," she hissed. "Seviper," her vengeful eyes darkened even further as she gave her next command, "poison him. He won't be so defiant if he's in too much pain to even lift a finger."

I turned and glared right at the blood-colored eyes of the fanged Pokémon. "Do your worst!" I snarled. "You won't get away with this."

"Oh, I think I already have!" the crazy lady sneered as the poisoned-covered tail progressed towards my arm. If only I could move!

As I prepared myself for the poison, I heard a clicking noise, followed by a white light that practically blinded everyone in the room.

The next thing I know, a burst of ice shoves the bladed tail away, causing it to become embedded into the floor. The snake hissed and tried to remove it, but it remained stuck.

Taking a huge chance, I snapped my head back, colliding with the Pokémon's head. The snake hit the wall behind us hard and fell to the ground in a dazed heap.

Looking back towards the other inhabitants of the room, I quickly analyzed the situation.

Mi had somehow made it out of her Pokéball and balanced on top of the bed while readying another Ice Beam aimed at the Seviper's head. Spencer had been able to untie himself and was in the midst of grabbing one of his Pokéballs. The Chinchou and its Trainer had similar expressions of shock adorned on their faces.

I wiggled my arms a bit, smirking in delight when I noticed that the paralysis from earlier seemed to have worn off. Perfect.

I dropped onto my side and rolled, uncoiling the Seviper. I felt more than saw the Ice Beam travel through the air above my head and hit what had kept me hostage. Jumping to my feet, I made a grab for the rest of my team as I heard Spencer release one of his. Turning around with a Pokéball firmly grasped in each hand, I released each of my Pokémon, turning the fight around in our favor.

"You are going to regret this," the now-wroth woman hissed, releasing a third Pokémon of her own. The white energy coalesced into a Pokémon that looked like a lobster, except it was _much_ larger.

"Crawdaunt, kill them all!"

"Protect, Shadow Ball and Ice Beam!"

"Castform! Use Energy Ball now!"

I used my arms to cover my face, but was able to watch as Eevee jumped forward and blocked the combined effort of the Chinchou and Crawdaunt. Comet, Mi, and Spencer's Castform then quickly unleashed their attacks, slamming their opponents into the wall, both Pokémon causing hairline cracks to form on what they collided into.

Someone was bound to notice this. We had to end this now!

Luckily, it seemed that Spencer decided the same.

"Use Thunder Wave on all of them!" I heard him command. I turned and watched as the little, white fluff ball sent the weak shock towards the Crawdaunt and the woman, paralyzing them like they had done to me. Her Chinchou seemed to have lost consciousness.

"No," she screeched, snarling at Spencer. "You will pay for this. Crawdaunt get UP!"

"No," he replied calmly, sending her a hard look. "You are going to get arrested."

Just as the criminal opened her mouth, the door slammed open, letting in an orange-colored canine as well as an officer. I gave a sigh of relief. Finally!

"Team Aqua is under arrest for multiple attempts of kidnapping as well as attempted assault and who knows what else. You're coming with me," the officer announced as he pulled out some handcuffs. He turned to the rest of us. "Are any of you injured?"

We all shook are heads.

"Good," the man said. "I'll need all of your statements, but first," he turned to the seething woman on the floor, "let's get this one locked up."

As the officer bent down, I went to congratulate all of my Pokémon and thank Spencer. I grabbed the Pokéballs at my waist and-

"DANNY! LOOK OUT!"

Before I knew what hit me, I was already sent flying, hitting the wall with a gasp. I crumpled to the floor in a dazed heap, feeling an excruciating pain coming from my chest. That's funny. Didn't my back hit the wall? Wha…?

"Danny?" I heard someone say. Looking up through bleary eyes, I could barely make out a face hovering above me. "Can… ou…. he… m…? Yo… en… pois…"

Pois? Pois… Poison?

You have got to be _kidding_ me?

* * *

"Ugh."

I opened my eyes with a groan then quickly shut them. It was way too bright and it hurt. I felt something wet brush against my nose. I tried to swat it away and shift into a more comfortable position, but the thing was rather persistent and wouldn't stop.

"Jazz," I said with exasperation as I opened my eyes, "leave me al… oh."

My Eevee stared at me with relief in her brown eyes and jumped at my face.

"Ack! Okay!" I laughed. She stopped with her licking and settled herself on my lap. I looked up and saw Comet flying around my head in circles. She stopped every now and then to nuzzle my face then would start all over.

"Danny," I looked up to meet Spencer's relieved eyes, "I'm glad you're finally up. That poison was nasty, but Milotic here really came through."

I frowned in confusion, but understood when I spotted the majestic, serpentine Pokémon watching with concern.

"Wow," I marveled. "Thanks," I told the impressive Pokémon, who preened in pride in a… familiar way. I turned towards Spencer. "Is this uh… Milotic yours?" I asked in wonder.

Spencer stared at me for a second in surprise before bursting into raucous laughter. I looked at him weirdly before noticing that both Eevee and Comet were having a hard time containing their giggles. What did I say?

The Milotic crooned in a soothing way and coiled around me. I stiffened a bit, remembering what happened with the Seviper, but relaxed after hearing the Pokémon's melodious voice. It licked my cheek and nuzzled my chest softly, where I noticed a bunch of gauze was wrapped around instead of my shirt.

"Danny," Spencer said and I looked up in confusion. His grin grew wider. "I think I'm right in assuming that you have no idea what a Feebas evolves into."

I stared at him in astonishment, realization dawning on me. I snapped my head towards the serpent, who crooned happily when she noticed that I finally recognized her. "Mi?" I whispered in awe.

Mi licked my cheek again. I laughed and hugged her.

"I can't believe this! You evolved? When did that happen?!" I exclaimed in wonder.

"When you were poisoned, your Feebas evolved," Spencer explained. "A Milotic has the ability to use a move called Refresh, which can heal poison." He moved towards Mi and touched her long, pick-colored appendages extending from her head. "You did an amazing job raising her Danny. I've seen quite a few of her kind, but she is beautiful."

"Thank you," I told him, not sure what else to say. I was still rather stunned by the turn of events. "What exactly happened after I passed out?"

Spencer gave a long, tired sigh and sat on the bed that I was on. "I'm sure you've guessed that the Seviper was able to free itself from the ice and went for you. You were hit in the chest, where a deep gash was made and also poisoned you badly." He sent me a tired smile. "Your Pokémon went rather berserk and attacked, subduing the Seviper. Your Feebas evolved after we all got a good look at your wound and she healed you from the poison before the shock wore off of the rest of us. That happened yesterday. You're okay now. Nurse Joy is probably going to give you a quick check-up and then let you go. The ship already arrived to Dewford about an hour ago and all members of Team Aqua that had been on the ship have been removed." He rested a hand on my shoulder. "I'm glad you're alright and I'm really sorry about the trouble." He looked really guilty when he said that.

"It's okay," I told him. "They would have gone after me eventually. Thanks for helping me."

He frowned at me. "That's right. You need to be extremely careful when you're traveling. You're obviously a capable Trainer, but I suggest exercising caution. We don't know if they are still interested in you," Spencer warned.

I nodded and continued petting my concerned Pokémon, thinking about what to do next. I'll probably wait on the Gym and get a bit more training done. I know that the Gym Leader here preferred using Fighting-typed Pokémon. I need to make sure all of my Pokémon were equipped to deal with that and train more with Mi. I was still stunned about her sudden evolution, especially at what she evolved into. I hadn't expected any of my Pokémon to evolve this early in my journey.

"Danny?" I heard Spencer say. I turned to face him. "You're taking on the Gym Leaders, correct?" he asked.

I blinked at the question. "Uh. Yeah. That's why I wanted to come to Dewford," I answered.

The man nodded determinedly. "Good. I was actually wondering if I could ask you something."

"Sure."

"Well as you know, I'm a researcher and most of my Pokémon enjoy helping me with my work," Spencer pulled out one of his Pokéballs, "but one of them is more of a battler. We decided a few months ago that his heart was in competitive battling, not in research, so I've been looking for a good person to let him train under." My eyes widened in astonishment when he sent me a warm smile after saying that.

"Are you serious?" I said in complete befuddlement.

"Yes," he answered seriously. "This Pokémon has always loved training and battling. I usually used one of those TM's on him and let him practice using the move, but that isn't what I want for him." He held out the Pokéball. "I want to give him to you. I've already talked it over with my Pokémon."

"I…" I had no idea what to say to this. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Isn't he your friend?"

"He is my friend. And as his friend, I want what's best for him, but that isn't with me," he answered with a smile full of reminiscing. "Would you do your best to train and battle with him?"

"I will," I said with conviction, honored by the request. Taking the Pokéball, I asked curiously, "What kind of Pokémon is he?"

"Oh he's one of a kind," Spencer explained. "He's a Pokémon called Castform. They have the remarkable ability to change their form and type according to the weather conditions."

My eyes brightened at that, not having heard of a Pokémon with such an ability. I released the Castform and watched as the white energy took the form of the white fluff ball I had briefly seen earlier.

The little guy cooed at me and looked curiously at the Pokémon jumbled around me.

"Hi there," I greeted him. "I'm Danny. It's nice to meet you."

The Castform cooed again, floated towards my hand and landed there. He was small enough to be able to stay comfortably there. I smiled at him and thanked Spencer.

"No. Don't worry about it. I'm happy that we got to talk," he said. The man stood. "It was very nice to meet you. Unfortunately, I have somewhere I have to be. Good luck on your journey."

"Thanks Spencer," I shook his hand, "and good luck with your research. Take care of yourself!"

* * *

**Hey everyone! I know it's been awhile and I'm glad that I can start working on this story more often.**

**Danny now has team member number four and Mi evolved!**

**One more thing since there's been a lot of questions about Danny traveling with others. As of now, I'm pretty sure Danny will travel with Ash and the others a few times. They'll run into each other, travel together for a bit, and then there paths will diverge. Then the cycle starts again the next time they see each other. I'm doing this for a couple reasons. One is because I don't want to end up writing chapters that are basically the episodes but with Danny thrown in there. I doubt I'd do a good job with that. There are a few things that happened in the show that I want Danny to be part of, but not everything. Another reason is that there would be five humans traveling together along with all of their Pokémon. It's hard to keep everyone involved. I noticed this when I was writing the beginning of this chapter. There were three people along with the Pokémon in the room. I had a hard time keeping everyone involved in what was going on. I think I need to practice writing like that more before I write an entire story with that many people the entire time. There is a third reason, which is that Danny has to do a few things on his own (which hasn't really been explained in the story yet, but I will get there eventually). **

**Now it's time for reviews.**

**Reviews:**

**GirlFish (Ch. 9): Technically both happened! I'm not sure about that connection or the Unova Region. I'll think about it. Yeah. He'll be a lot more careful now that he's a bit more aware about what could happen. The Team Aqua member that Danny ran into was Shelly. She was a reoccurring character in the anime. **

**Ninuhuju (Ch. 9): Yup! That's what I was going for!**

**Owldusk (Ch. 9): Not necessarily permanent. I put a better explanation above, before I went to reviews.**

**Zane Tribal Tyne Alexandros (Ch. 9): Who's Captain Kid? Are you talking about Youngblood? Thanks!**

**SilverShark Fang (Ch. 9): Yup!**

**trninjakiller (Ch. 2): Okay.**

**GreenDrkness (Ch. 9): They don't know that he's from Evolution Island. **

**Luna-tic4590 (Ch. 9): My lips are sealed! So we'll see!**

**GhostlyVaporeon (Ch. 9): Wow! I am flattered by your review! Thanks! I'm sorry about the wait.**

**Rosie and Sola fox (Ch. 9): He's been there for about a month. Most of that time was due to Danny getting his bearings, figuring out how to train his Pokémon, and traveling to Littleroot. I noticed that there were a lot of episodes when it came to Ash getting from Petalburg to Rustboro, so I tried to take that into account. Yeah, Danny tends to get involved in a lot of things he shouldn't have, just like Ash.**

**Random Chick's Pen (Ch. 9): Sorry that it took so long. I hope you like the chapter.**

**Myra the Dovahkiin (Ch. 9): Thanks!**

**Ivanganev1992 (Ch. 9): I wanted to try something new, so Danny isn't really going to have access to his powers in the Pokémon World. I hope you enjoy reading this story either way.**


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